Most carcinomas spread to distant sites through lymphatic vessels. Several preclinical and clinical studies have shown a positive correlation between the incidence of lymph node metastasis and secretion of the lymphatic growth factor vascular endothelial g ...

American Association for Cancer Research2009

An agarose-based microfluidic platform with a gradient buffer for 3D chemotaxis studies

Melody Swartz, Ulrike Haessler, Mingming Wu

The current state-of-art in 3D microfluidic chemotaxis device (mu FCD) is limited by the inherent coupling of the fluid flow and chemical concentration gradients. Here, we present an agarose-based 3D mu FCD that decouples these two important parameters, in ...

Springer Verlag2009

3D collagen cultures under well-defined dynamic strain: A novel strain device with a porous elastomeric support

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Federica Boschetti

The field of mechanobiology has grown tremendously in the past few decades, and it is now well accepted that dynamic stresses and strains can impact cell and tissue organization, cell-cell and cell-matrix communication, matrix remodeling, cell proliferatio ...

Wiley-Blackwell2009

seeCell: Visualization and Tracking Dedicated to Cell Analysis

Robin Mange, Melody Swartz

This paper presents a method for the real-time tracking and rendering of dendritic cells in a stream of microscopes images, as implemented in the software seeCell (TM) developed by Visualbiotech (Mange, 2008). The main guideline is how computer graphics te ...

Ieee Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Po Box 1331, Piscataway, Nj 08855-1331 Usa2008

Effects of dynamic compression on lentiviral transduction in an in vitro airway wall model

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei

Asthmatic patients are more susceptible to viral infection, and we asked whether dynamic strain on the airway wall (such as that associated with bronchoconstriction) would influence the rate of viral infection of the epithelial and subepithelial cells. To ...

2008

Mimicking interstitial microenvironments for lymphatic capillary tissue

Jan Overney, Melody Swartz

2008

Tissue engineering the tumor microenvironment: Synergy between biophysical and biochemical cues in tumor invasion

Melody Swartz, Adrian Chung-Kai Shieh

2008

Lymphatic drainage function and its immunological implications: From dendritic cell homing to vaccine design

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

The slow interstitial flow that drains fluid from the blood capillaries into the lymphatic capillaries provides transport of macromolecular nutrients to cells in the interstitium. We discuss herein how this flow also provides continuous access to immune ce ...

Elsevier2008

Design, fabrication, and characterization of a composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Federica Boschetti

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds have been successfully used in bone tissue engineering, with or without hydroxyapatite (HA) and with a macroporosity given either by simple PLGA sphere packaging and/or by leaching out NaCI. The objective of this ...

Wichtig Editore2008

Exploiting lymphatic transport and complement activation in nanoparticle vaccines

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

2008

Biofunctional materials in tissue repair and immunotherapeutics

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz

2008

Exploiting lymphatic transport and complement activation in nanoparticle vaccines

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Sai Reddy

Antigen targeting and adjuvancy schemes that respectively facilitate delivery of antigen to dendritic cells and elicit their activation have been explored in vaccine development. Here we investigate whether nanoparticles can be used as a vaccine platform b ...

Nature Publishing Group2007

Autologous chemotaxis as a mechanism of tumor cell homing to lymphatics via interstitial flow and autocrine CCR7 signaling

Melody Swartz, Carolyn Yong Pullin, Mark Fleury, Alice Anna Tomei

CCR7 is implicated in lymph node metastasis of cancer, but its role is obscure. We report a mechanism explaining how interstitial flow caused by lymphatic drainage directs tumor cell migration by autocrine CCR7 signaling. Under static conditions, lymphatic ...

Elsevier2007

An ultra-thin PDMS membrane as a bio/micro-nano interface: fabrication and characterization

Melody Swartz

We report a method for making ultra-thin PDMS membrane devices. Freely suspended membranes as thin as 70 nm have been fabricated. Bulging tests were performed with a custom built fluidic cell to characterize large circular membranes. The fluidic cell allow ...

Springer Verlag2007

A driving force for change: interstitial flow as a morphoregulator

Melody Swartz, Joseph Rutkowski

Dynamic stresses that are present in all living tissues drive small fluid flows, called interstitial flows, through the extracellular matrix. Interstitial flow not only helps to transport nutrients throughout the tissue, but also has important roles in tis ...

Elsevier2007

Effects of extracellular fiber architecture on cell membrane shear stress in a 3D fibrous matrix

Melody Swartz, Federica Boschetti

Interstitial fluid flow has been shown to affect the organization and behavior of cells in 3D environments in vivo and in vitro, yet the forces driving such responses are not clear. Due to the complex architecture of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the ...

2007

Cooperative and redundant roles of VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3 signaling in adult lymphangiogenesis

Melody Swartz, Joseph Rutkowski, Miriella Carmela Pasquier

Activation of vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF) receptor-3 (VEGFR-3) by VEGF-C initiates lymphangiogenesis by promoting lymphatic proliferation and migration. However, it is unclear whether VEGFR-3 signaling is required beyond these initial stages ...

Federation of American Society of Experimental Biology2007

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