Date of Award

8-16-2024

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Biomedical Science

First Advisor

Jay Potts

Abstract

Sodium alginate is a natural polymer that has been widely used as a drug delivery system due to its controlled-release qualities and low cellular toxicity. These capsules are effective at transporting therapeutics in various diseased animal models. Retinitis Pigmentosa is an incurable genetic disease affecting the retina, which causes gradual blindness as the disease progresses. In our study, we injected cell-based sodium alginate capsules into the vitreous cavity of C57BL/6 and Pde6brd10/J mice to observe the migration of these capsules in both wildtype and diseased mouse models over a course of 2 weeks. Our intention was to utilize the slow-release factor of sodium alginate and to prove the possibility of retinal regeneration using arising retinal pigmented epithelial cells or adipose stem cells. We observed that there seems to be a proximal effect from these cell-based microcapsules on the ganglion cell layer as well as these cells affecting the lens. While our work is in the preliminary stages, this project shows that cell-based sodium alginate microcapsules are a viable source to treat ocular diseases.

Rights

© 2024, Chelsea Marie Zizzi

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