Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease caused by the deterioration of articular cartilage and is a leading cause of disability in the United States and worldwide. Much current research into improved treatment for this disease is focused on tissue engineering through the growth of cartilage sheets made by articular chondrocytes. However, as chondrocytes proliferate in vitro, they also lose their ability to produce dense extracellular matrix, a necessary component of articular cartilage conferring mechanical strength. SOX9, a transcriptional activator, increases type II collagen expression, a key articular cartilage extracellular matrix component. Thus, SOX9 promotes an articular cartilage phenotype. Therefore, increasing SOX9 expression and activity as a transcriptional activator in culture has the potential to improve tissue engineering outcomes. This project serves to generate SOX9 promotor-driven secreted luciferase reporter chondrocytes to monitor chondrogenic properties temporally and non-destructively for use in high-throughput analysis of culturing conditions and drug screening.

Thesis Completion

2020

Semester

Fall

Thesis Chair/Advisor

Kean, Thomas

Co-Chair

Self, William T.

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Release Date

12-1-2020

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