creator Kim, Kihwan 2019 Spring 2019 Thesis Illinois Institute of Technology BME / Biomedical Engineering advisor Bhushan, Abhinav Bioengineering Biology chemotaxis Crohn's disease differentiation inflammation cytokines preadipocytes proliferation en The significant features of Crohn’s Disease include creeping fat that covers more than 50% of both small and large intestine surfaces and high level of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-6. However, the relationship between these two factors of Crohn’s Disease is still unknown. Therefore, verifying the relationship could contribute to understanding the cause of Crohn’s Disease. In this study, preadipocytes were used because they have a potential to grow as adipocytes which are developed as creeping fat. The objective of this study was to observe proliferation, differentiation, and chemotaxis of preadipocytes in inflammatory microenvironment. It was found that only TNF-alpha stimulates preadipocyte proliferation whereas IL-6 does not. However, both TNF-alpha and IL-6 inhibit differentiation of preadipocytes. Furthermore, preadipocytes did not have chemotactic responses towards both cytokines. Therefore this study concludes that these inflammatory microenvironments induce the preadipocytes proliferation in Crohn’s. However, they inhibit adipogenesis and recruitment of the preadipocytes in Crohn’s. born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access http://hdl.handle.net/10560/islandora:1000839