The Effect of Cell Density and Cultivation Period on Skeletal Muscle Extracellular Matrix Accumulation

Traumatic skeletal muscle injuries have led to severe disability disallowing one to perform necessary daily tasks. Different methods are under current research to rebuild muscle tissue and have it function properly. One such method is the use of extracellular matrix, or ECM, retrieved from cells to create biological scaffolds providing structure for myoblast cells to grow into tissue. This research holds promise because it utilizes the body’s own machinery, minimizing risk of a foreign body response. To obtain ECM scaffolding, one viable technique involves the cultivation of cells on polyurethane foams to collect and harvest ECM. This research investigates the effect that initial cell density and cultivation period have on the accumulation of ECM material on the polyurethane scaffolds. The polyurethane foams are seeded with initial cell densities of 1x106, 2x106 and 4x106 cells/foam, and the cells are cultivated for a control period of 3 weeks. In an additional experiment, the polyurethane foams are initially seeded at a control density of 2x106 cells/foam, and the cells are cultivated at two time periods of 2 and 4 weeks. At the end of each experiment, the polyurethane scaffolds are dissolved by dimethylacetamide solvent, and the dry weights of the resulting ECM are weighed. The results are examined to determine any trends in ECM accumulation and to suggest modifying the process of cell cultivation on polyurethane foams to increase ECM yield

A Spell For Recontruction

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Editor’s Note

In this issue of Newport History, both articles focus on the accomplishments of a handful of privileged individuals who left their mark on the cultural life of Aquidneck Island during the Gilded Age. These men and women of means were quite different from the better-known Vanderbilts, Astors, and Belmonts, who enlisted grand architecture and social pageantry to promote aristocratic status. Rather, the subjects of this issue of the journal pursued distinctive intellectual and personal interests, and embraced architectural styles that mirrored a lifestyle centered on quiet self-fulfillment. In the lead article, Peter Colt Josephs draws upon a large collection of family papers and photographs in exploring an unusual residence originally called Louisiana, built during the early 1880s on Easton’s Point in Middletown. Peter Colt Josephs is the youngest grandchild of the patrons of the house, Alice V. Wilson Josephs and Lyman Colt Josephs. Four of Newport’s Renaissance men—Alexander Agassiz, Raphael Pumpelly, Theodore Montgomery Davis, and William Fitzhugh Whitehouse—are the subjects of an article by Dr. Evelyn M. Cherpak, Head of the Naval Historical Collection at the Naval War College in Newport since 1974. Her intriguing discussion of the lives and careers of these men not only reveals the accomplishments of four adventurous and genial personalities of Gilded Age Newport but also paints a picture of the cultural context surrounding those not caught up in the familiar rituals of New York society