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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . 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.: . Journal of Orthopaedic Research 36(6):1757-1766. 2018, doi: 10.1002/jor.23820.
Correa, D.; Somoza, R.A.; and Caplan, A.I.: . 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.: . Tissue Engineering, Part A, DOI: 10.1089/ten.tea.2016.0559.
Correa, D.; Somoza, R.A.; and Caplan, A.I.: . 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.: . Tissue Engineering Part C Methods. 2016 22(9):904-913.
Caplan, A.I.,; Mason, C.; and Reeve, B.: . 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.: .
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.: . 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.: . Stem Cells Int. 2016;2016:5303048. doi: 10.1155/2016/5303048. Epub 2016 Jan 26.
Caplan A.I.: MSCs: . 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.: . Reprod Sci. 2016 23(3):302-9.
Correa D.; Lin, P.; Somoza, R.; Schiemann, W.P.; and Caplan, A.I.: . International Journal of Cancer, 2016 15;138(2):417-27.