Point-of-Care Scaffold For Tissue Reconstruction

Lopez, Samantha Katerina; Maksudiy, Malika; Le, Carmellitta; Carrillo, Navelyn

Student Work

Point-of-Care Scaffold For Tissue Reconstruction

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Breast cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis among women. A mastectomy is usually performed to remove the diseased area, and breast reconstruction is performed afterward for aesthetics. Methods of reconstruction consist of: artificial implants, autologous fat grafting, free-flap reconstruction and cadaver-derived scaffolds. This project aimed to create a single-use closed system for decellularizing lipoaspirate in under an hour to produce a scaffold for breast tissue reconstruction. This device would replace the current autologous fat grafting method, where the patient’s fat is processed and adipocytes are injected into the breast, since this method lacks proper blood supply only 30-70% of adipocytes survive leading to unpredictable aesthetic outcomes. This design was inspired by the novel mechanical technique to decellularize adipose tissue by Zhang et al. The decellularization and filtration techniques used in the prototype were verified through multiple iterations of testing with a carrot lipoaspirate surrogate. The final design was able to blend and decellularize lipoaspirate fat from the patient and filter through a mesh to remove waste liquid presumed to be composed of blood, oil, and tumescent fluids to obtain a 49.69% yield of presumptive ECM content, but due to limitations histology could not be performed to verify the yield composition.

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.

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