INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFICACY OF REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES GENERATED BY BOVINE AORTIC ENDOTHELIAL CELLS FOR INITIATING FREE-RADICAL POLYMERIZATION Lu, Chenlin Reactive oxygen species are reported to be generated by bovine aortic endothelial cells during ischemia followed by reperfusion. This biological response, believed to be the cause of post-ischemic reperfusion injury, inspired us to investigate the possibility of coupling it with the initiation of free-radical polymerization to produce polymer hydrogels for cell encapsulation. In this work, the generation of reactive oxygen species during ischemia and reperfusion was examined by fluorescence detection and the feasibility of initiating free-radical polymerization by generated reactive oxygen species was investigated in two sets of experiments. The generation of reactive oxygen species by bovine aortic endothelial cells when subjected to anoxia followed by reoxygenation was investigated in both attached and suspended cells. Both intracellular and extracellular generations of ROS appeared to occur in the experiments of attached cells. Cell viability experiments demonstrated that the generation of ROS was sufficient to cause cell damage and death. The feasibility of initiating free-radical polymerization by reactive oxygen species generated by bovine aortic endothelial cells subjected to anoxia followed by reoxygenation was investigated in two sets of experiments. One set involved the linear polymerization of NVP which allowed us to quantify the extent of polymerization and characterization of the weight conversion of PVP polymer. The other set involved the formation of PEGDA hydrogels which were characterized by imaging and staining methods. To our knowledge this is the first evidence of cell induced polymerization initiated by reactive oxygen species and gelation which can be used for a variety of biomedical applications. M.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering, December 2013 Teymour, Fouad 2013 2013-12 Thesis application/pdf islandora:8889 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3219 ChBE / Chemical and Biological Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology en In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access