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Melody Swartz

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Related publications (136)

Interstitial flow and its effects in soft tissues

Melody Swartz, Mark Fleury

Interstitial flow plays important roles in the morphogenesis, function, and pathogenesis of tissues. To investigate these roles and exploit them for tissue engineering or to overcome barriers to drug delivery, a comprehensive consideration of the interstit ...

2007

Engineered blood and lymphatic capillaries in 3-D VEGF-fibrin-collagen matrices with interstitial flow

Melody Swartz

In vitro endothelial cell organization into capillaries is a long standing challenge of tissue engineering. We recently showed the utility of low level interstitial flow in guiding the organization of endothelial cells through a 3-D fibrin matrix-containin ...

Wiley-Blackwell2007

Regulation of lymphatic capillary regeneration by interstitial flow in skin

Melody Swartz, Joseph Rutkowski

Decreased interstitial flow (IF) in secondary lymphedema is coincident with poor physiological lymphatic regeneration. However, both the existence and direction of causality between IF and lymphangiogenesis remain unclear. This is primarily because the rol ...

2007

In vivo targeting of dendritic cells in lymph nodes with poly(propylene sulfide) nanoparticles

Annemie Rehor, Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

Delivery of biodegradable nanoparticles to antigen-presenting cells (APCs), specifically dendritic cells (DCs), has potential for immunotherapy. This study investigates the delivery of 20, 45, and 100nm diameter poly(ethylene glycol)-stabilized poly(propyl ...

2006

Mechanisms of interstitial flow-induced remodeling of fibroblast-collagen cultures

Melody Swartz

Interstitial fluid flow, critical for macromolecular transport, was recently shown to drive fibroblast differentiation and perpendicular cell and matrix alignment in 3D collagen cultures. Here we explore the mechanisms underlying this flow-induced cell and ...

Springer US2006

Capturing complex 3D tissue physiology in vitro

Melody Swartz

The emergence of tissue engineering raises new possibilities for the study of complex physiological and pathophysiological processes in vitro. Many tools are now available to create 3D tissue models in vitro, but the blueprints for what to make have been s ...

2006

Secondary lymphedema in the mouse tail: Lymphatic hyperplasia, VEGF-C upregulation, and the protective role of MMP-9

Melody Swartz, Joseph Rutkowski

Disturbances in the microcirculation can lead to secondary lymphedema, a common pathological condition that, despite its frequency, still lacks a cure. Lymphedema is clinically well described, but while the genetic underpinnings that cause lymphatic malfor ...

2006

Extracellular Matrix Remodeling by Dynamic Strain in a 3D Tissue Engineered Human Airway Wall Model

Melody Swartz

Airway wall remodeling is a hallmark of asthma, characterized by subepithelial thickening and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. Mechanical stress due to hyperresponsive smooth muscle cells may contribute to this remodeling, but its extent and relevanc ...

2006

Targeting dendritic cells with biomaterials: developing the next generation of vaccines

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

Current vaccine and immunotherapy technology faces ongoing challenges in both efficacy and practicality: many chronic diseases cannot yet be addressed by vaccination, and several vaccines that do function well require multiple injections, which is a substa ...

2006

A sensitive in vivo model for quantifying interstitial convective transport of injected macromolecules and nanoparticles

Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

Effective interstitial transport of particles is necessary for injected drug/diagnostic agents to reach the intended target; however, quantitative methods to estimate such transport parameters are lacking. In this study we develop an in vivo model for eval ...

2006

Autologous morphogen gradients by subtle interstitial flow and matrix interactions

Melody Swartz, Mark Fleury

Cell response to extracellular cues is often driven by gradients of morphogenetic and chemotactic proteins, and therefore descriptions of how such gradients arise are critical to understanding and manipulating these processes. Many of these proteins are se ...

2006

Characterization of lymphangiogenesis in a model of adult skin regeneration

Melody Swartz, Joseph Rutkowski

To date, adult lymphangiogenesis is not well understood. In this study we describe the evolution of lymphatic capillaries in regenerating skin and correlate lymphatic migration and organization with the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), immun ...

2006

Interstitial fluid flow induces myofibroblast differentiation and collagen alignment in vitro

Boris Hinz, Melody Swartz

The differentiation of fibroblasts to contractile myofibroblasts, which is characterized by de novo expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), is crucial for wound healing and a hallmark of tissue scarring and fibrosis. These processes often foll ...

Company of Biologists2005

Microarray analysis of VEGF-C responsive genes in human lymphatic endothelial cells

Melody Swartz, Carolyn Yong Pullin

Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) is considered one of the most important factors influencing lymphatic endothelial cell biology. The goal of this work was to characterize the gene expression response by lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) to VE ...

2005

Mechanobiology in the third dimension

Melody Swartz

Cells are mechanically coupled to their extracellular environments, which play critical roles in both communicating the state of the mechanical environment to the cell as well as in mediating cellular response to a variety of stimuli. Along with the molecu ...

Kluwer Academic Publishers, Springer2005

Dendritic-cell trafficking to lymph nodes through lymphatic vessels

Melody Swartz

Antigen-presenting dendritic cells often acquire foreign antigens in peripheral tissues such as the skin. Optimal encounter with naive T cells for the presentation of these antigens requires that the dendritic cells migrate to draining lymph nodes through ...

2005

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