Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Musculoskeletal Health, Arthritis, Skin and Oral Health

The proposed research program involves the development of an engineered fat tissue substitute for use in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Injury to the fatty tissues of the body is associated with scar tissue formation, and the potential for deformity and loss of function. To improve quality of life, the proposed research team will develop new strategies for applications including breast reconstruction following tumour removal, the correction of birth defects, and soft tissue repair following trauma. The long-term objective is to minimize scar tissue formation, while promoting the regeneration of the patient's own healthy tissues, to fully restore the lost tissue shape and volume. Tissue engineering of fat holds promise for the development of new approaches in reconstructive surgery. One common strategy is to design 3-D scaffolds that define the desired tissue shape, and to seed them with cells that can contribute to the regenerative response, such as the stem cells that are present in human fat. Previous research has helped to identify some of the scaffold characteristics that impact the ability of these stem cells to grow and differentiate into mature fat cells. While these studies have shown the promise of a cell-seeded scaffold approach, the type of construct that will facilitate safe, predictable, and long-term large volume augmentation is unknown. Cellular interactions with the engineered scaffolds impact a range of cell functions including proliferation, stem cell differentiation, and migration. Hence, there is a significant need to develop a much deeper understanding of how stem cells respond within different scaffold environments in order to rationally design soft tissue substitutes. The proposed research will make significant progress towards identifying and optimizing the key scaffold properties that regulate fat formation. These studies are essential for continued progress towards a new clinical strategy for soft tissue augmentation.