Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Chemical Engineering
Committee Chair
Kyung-Ho Roh
Committee Member
Paresh Kumar Samantaray
Committee Member
Agnieszka Truszkowska
Research Advisor
Kyung-Ho Roh
Subject(s)
B cells, Cultures (Biology), Liposomes, Lymphocyte transformation
Abstract
Improvement of in-vitro culture of immune cells is critical for expanding our understanding of the immune system and advancing the treatment of diseases, whether pathogenic, cancerous, or autoimmune, via cellular immunotherapies. This study aims to develop a feeder-free B cell culture system using biomaterials-based presentation of a critical signaling molecule, namely CD40 ligand (CD40L). Traditional B cell culture methods rely on allogenic feeder cells to present CD40L, but a culture of only autologous cells is preferable for cellular immunotherapies. Previous work of our lab established an effective feeder-free B cell culture system using magnetic microbeads as a synthetic platform for CD40L presentation, and this study tested liposomes as an alternative platform for CD40L presentation. When coupled with appropriate soluble signaling, the liposome effectively induced the hallmarks of B cell activation and subsequent germinal center (GC)-like reactions in vitro, namely a large proliferation (up to 27-fold expansion), antibody isotype class switch recombination, and differentiation into effector cells in a feeder-free, serum-free culture. More particularly, liposome-based CD40L presentation was more effective in the generation of antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) when compared to the microbead-based presentation. Up until now, liposomes have been mainly used for drug delivery, but the success of this study highlights their potential for use as a signal presentation platform in cell culture generally, and this research specifically is an important step on the path toward viable B cell-based immunotherapies
Recommended Citation
Bone, Sydney, "Liposomes as a platform for CD40 ligand presentation for the purpose of feeder-free B cell activation" (2025). Theses. 731.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/731
