Doctoral thesis defense
Tissue Engineering group member Sushma Bartaula-Brevik successfully defended her PhD thesis "Vascularization and Host Response in Bone Tissue Engineering" on 07.12.16.
![sushma](https://www.uib.no/sites/w3.uib.no/files/styles/content_main/public/media/sushma_defense.jpg?itok=xRZFV6i_×tamp=1579194807)
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Summary:
The major hurdle in the survival of a tissue-engineered construct after implantation is vascularization. Pre-vascularization is one of the proposed methods to achieve vascularization in tissue-engineered constructs. This thesis is centered on prevascularization of the tissue-engineered construct and local host response upon implantation in vivo.
In her thesis, Sushma has shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in combination with endothelial cells (EC) developed microvessels-like structures before implantation in vivo. Hypoxia, a common consequence after implantation of constructs, accelerated wound healing and tube formation via paracrine effect of MSC. Combining these two effects might lead to inosculation and survival of a graft. Addition of EC improved the immunomodulatory property of MSC.
Acting as opponents were Professor Susanna Miettinen, University of Tampere, Finland, and Professor Xuebin Yang, University of Leeds, UK.
Congratulations!