Interests: Tissue engineering of mesenchymal tissue, skeletal tissue biology, extracellular matrix; and the aging of the skin.
Research Information
Research Interests
You are ALIVE because you continuously renew (rejuvenate) various tissues/organs. Within the body, cells of the skin, gut, and blood, among others come to maturation, function for a time and then expire to be replaced by a continuous stream of cells which renew the tissue. The fabric of bone is broken down by specialized cells, osteoclasts, to form large pits into which bone-forming cells, osteoblasts, deposit new bone until the pits are filled; these osteoblasts then expire and newly differentiated osteoblasts take their place. In every tissue in which this rejuvenation process occurs, a source exists which gives rise to these differentiated cells. The source is called a STEM CELL. Such a stem cell divides to produce like stem cells, some of which enter into a pathway of development and differentiation resulting in an end-phenotype which produces highly specialized molecules and/or functions and then, after a time, expires.
The emphasis of our studies is to develop and refine the technology necessary to isolate one of these rare stem cells, the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC). The MSC gives rise to bone-forming cells, cartilage-forming cells and cells of tendon, ligament fat, and dermis, as well as various connective tissues including the stroma of marrow. Following isolation and by mitotically expanding their numbers in culture, we can drive these cells down specific and different developmental pathways with emphasis on cartilage and bone. The experimental approaches use the classical information of both morphogenesis and organogenesis coupled with the new information of the control of developmental lineage progression as controlled by potent growth factors. The knowledge gained from animal models will be directly applied to the study of human MSC, as our preliminary studies have already proven to be successful. These studies integrate both basic scientists and clinicians to more effectively translate these basic science findings into new, innovative human health care protocols of using tissue engineering to repair skeletal tissues as in this accompanying figure.
Publications
Zhong, Y.; Caplan, A.I.; Welter, J.F.; and Baskaran, H.: Glucose Availability Affects Extracellular Matrix Synthesis During Chondrogenesis In Vitro. Tissue Eng Part A. 2021 Jan 26. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2020.0144. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33499734
Dai, Y.; Xu, W.; Somoza, R.A.; Welter, J.F.; Caplan, A.I.; Liu, C.C.: An Integrated Multi-Function Heterogeneous Biochemical Circuit for High-Resolution Electrochemistry-Based Genetic Analysis. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Nov 9;59(46):20545-20551. doi: 10.1002/anie.202010648. PMID: 32835412
Dai, Y.; Somoza, R.A.; Wang, L.; Welter, J.F.; Li, Y.; Caplan, A.I.; and Liu, C.C.: Exploring the Trans-Cleavage Activity of CRISPR Cas12a (cpf1) for the Development of a Universal Electrochemical Biosensor. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Sep 30. doi: 10.1002/anie.201910772. [Epub ahead of print]
Pittenger, M.F.; Discher, D.E.; Péault, B.M.; Phinney, D.G.; Hare, J.M.; and Caplan, A.I.: Mesenchymal stem cell perspective: cell biology to clinical progress. NPJ Regen Med. 2019 4:22. doi: 10.1038/s41536-019-0083-6. eCollection 2019. Review. PMID: 31815001
Vail, D.J.; Somoza, R.A.; Caplan, A.I.; and Khalil, A.M.: Transcriptome Dynamics of Long Non-Coding RNAs and Transcription Factors Demarcate Human Neonatal, Adult, and hMSC-derived Engineered Cartilage. J Tissue Eng Regen Med, 2019 doi: 10.1002/term.2961.
Dai, Y.; Somoza, R.A.; Wang, L.; Welter, J.F.; Li, Y.; Caplan, A.I.; and Liu, C.C.: Exploring the Trans-Cleavage Activity of CRISPR Cas12a (cpf1) for the Development of a Universal Electrochemical Biosensor. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Sep 30. doi: 10.1002/anie.201910772. [Epub ahead of print]
Kenyon, J.D.; Sergeeva, O.; Somoza, R.A.; Li, M.; Caplan, A.I.; Khalil, A.M.; and Lee, Z.: Analysis of -5p and -3p Strands of miR-145 and miR-140 During Mesenchymal Stem Cell Chondrogenic Differentiation. Tissue engineering. Part A, 25(1-2):80-90, 2019. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2017.0440.
Lennon, D.; Solchaga, L.A.; Somoza, R.A.; Schluchter, M.D.; Margevicius, S.; and Caplan, A.I.: Human and rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells differ in their response to fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor. Tissue Eng Part A. 2018 Aug 22. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2018.0126. [Epub ahead of print]
Mansour, J.M.; Motavalli, M.; Dennis, J.E.; Kean, T.J.; Caplan, A.I.; Berilla, J.A.; and Welter, J.F.: Rapid detection of shear-induced damage in tissue engineered cartilage using ultrasound. Tissue engineering, part C, 2018, PMID: 29999475, doi: 10.1089/ten.TEC.2017.0513. [Epub ahead of print]
Vail, D.; Somoza, R.; Caplan, A.; and Khalil, A.: Transcriptome dynamics of long non-coding RNAs and transcription factors demarcate human neonatal, adult, and MSC-derived engineered cartilage. Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (Submitted)
Zhong, Y.; Motavalli, M.; Caplan, A.I.; Welter, J.F.; and Baskaran, H.: Dynamics of intrinsic glucose uptake kinetics in human mesenchymal stem cells during chondrogenesis. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2018, PMID: 29948374, DOI: 10.1007/s10439-018-2067-x [Epub ahead of print]
Wang, K-C.; Egelhoff, T.T.; Caplan, A.I.; Welter, J.F.; Baskaran, H.: ROCK Inhibition promotes development of chondrogenic tissue by improved mass transport, Tissue Engineering Part A, 2018, PMID: 29397789, DOI: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2017.0438 [Epub ahead of print]
Kenyon, J.D.; Sergeeva, O.; Somoza, R.A.; Caplan, A.I.; Khalil, A.M.; and Lee, Z.: Chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cell related to both -5p and -3p miRNAs. Tissue Eng Part A. 2018 May 24. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2017.0440. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29676203
Sorrell, J.M.; Somoza, R.A.; and Caplan, A.I.: Human mesenchymal stem cells induced to differentiate as chondrocytes follow a biphasic pattern of extracellular matrix production. Journal of Orthopaedic Research 36(6):1757-1766. 2018, doi: 10.1002/jor.23820.
Correa, D.; Somoza, R.A.; and Caplan, A.I.: Non-destructive/non-invasive imaging evaluation of cellular differentiation progression during in vitro MSC-derived chondrogenesis. Tissue Eng Part A. 2017 doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2017.0125. [Epub ahead of print]
Somoza, R.A.; Correa, D.; Labat, I.; Sternberg, H.; Forrest, M.E.; Khalil, A.M.; West, M.D.; Tesar, P.; and Caplan, A.I.: Transcriptome-wide analyses of human neonatal articular cartilage and human mesenchymal stem cell-derived cartilage provide a new molecular target for evaluating engineered cartilage. Tissue Engineering, Part A, DOI: 10.1089/ten.tea.2016.0559.
Correa, D.; Somoza, R.A.; and Caplan, A.I.: Non-destructive/non-invasive imaging evaluation of cellular differentiation progression during in vitro MSC-derived chondrogenesis. Tissue Eng Part A. 2017 Aug 21. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2017.0125. [Epub ahead of print]
Human mesenchymal stem cells induced to differentiate as chondrocytes follow a biphasic pattern of extracellular matrix production. (Submitted to Journal of Orthopaedic Research).
Mishra, R.; Sefcik, R.S.; Bishop, T.J.; Montelone, S.M.; Crouser, N.; Welter, J.F.; Caplan, A.I.; and Dean, D.: Growth factor dose tuning for bone progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation on resorbable poly(propylene fumarate) scaffolds. Tissue Engineering Part C Methods. 2016 22(9):904-913.
Caplan, A.I.,; Mason, C.; and Reeve, B.: The 3Rs of Cell Therapy. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2016 Aug 8. pii: sctm.2016-0180. [Epub ahead of print]
Tremolada, C.; Ricordi, C.; Caplan, A.I,; and Ventura, C.: Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Lipogems, a Reverse Story: from Clinical Practice to Basic Science.
Methods Mol Biol. 2016;1416:109-22. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-3584-0_6.
Shalev-Malul, G.; Soler, D.C.; Ting, A.E.; Lehman, N.A.; Barnboym, E.; McCormick, T.S.; Anthony, D.D.; Lazarus, H.M.; Caplan, A.I.; Breitman, M.; and Singer, N.G.: Development of a functional biomarker for use in cell-based therapy studies in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2016 5(5):628-31.
Sutton, M.T.; Fletcher, D.; Ghosh, S.K.; Weinberg, A.; van Heeckeren, R.; Kaur, S.; Sadeghi, Z.; Hijaz, A.; Reese, J.; Lazarus, H.M.; Lennon, D.P.; Caplan, A.I.; and Bonfield, T.L.: Antimicrobial properties of mesenchymal stem cells: therapeutic potential for cystic fibrosis infection, and treatment. Stem Cells Int. 2016;2016:5303048. doi: 10.1155/2016/5303048. Epub 2016 Jan 26.
Caplan A.I.: MSCs: The sentinel and safe-guards of injury. J Cell Physiol. 2016 231(7):1413-1416.
Barker, N.M.; Carrino, D.A.; Caplan, A.I.; Hurd, W.W.; Liu, J.H.; Tan, H.; and Mesiano S.: Proteoglycans in leiomyoma and normal myometrium: abundance, steroid hormone control, and implications for pathophysiology. Reprod Sci. 2016 23(3):302-9.
Correa D.; Lin, P.; Somoza, R.; Schiemann, W.P.; and Caplan, A.I.: Bone marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs) regulate melanoma cancer cell extravasation at their perivascular niche. International Journal of Cancer, 2016 15;138(2):417-27.