Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (cEDS) disrupts collagen structure, leading to delayed wound healing which negatively impacts patients’ quality of life. There exists a need to create treatments to aid in the cEDS wound healing process; however, the mechanisms behind this impaired wound healing are not fully understood. Wound healing models provide an opportunity to further identify disease characteristics and serve as a tool for pharmacological testing. Existing wound healing models are either not sufficiently representative of the disease or are expensive and complex to fabricate. This project aimed to engineer a 3D in vitro wound healing model of cEDS. A 3D in vitro cell-seeded fibrin gel model was engineered, supported by cell-count studies, wound healing monolayer assays, outgrowth assays, and indentation tests. Findings demonstrate the model may serve as a representative tool to improve the general understanding of wound healing in cEDS.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Holmes, Abigail
• Donahue, Madison
• Whitford, Spencer
• Evohr, Maya
• Foltz, Morgan

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 121495
• E-project-042424-123115

Keyword

• fibrin
• collagen
• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
• wound healing
• tissue engineering
• dermal fibroblasts

Advisor

• Pins, George D

Year

• 2024

Date created

• 2024-04-24

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biomedical Engineering

Source

• E-project-042424-123115

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2024-05-28