Engineering Dysfunctional Adipose Tissue

Lipedema is characterized by the build-up of fat in tissues which have obstructed or poor clearance and drainage. However, there is a gap in the knowledge in terms of what is happening within the adipose tissues and how the composition, structure, and pathology of these tissues can contribute to limited movement of fatty acids, lipids, fluid, and other biomolecules.
We leverage our unique set of expertise in tissue engineered models of adipose tissue and tissue biotransport to determine how different normal and pathological states can contribute to limited or altered transport within and through tissues. We hypothesize that lipedemic tissues will have reduced transport, both convective fluid flow and diffusion, through them. This transport will directly correlate with the total transport through vascular networks, contributing to further dysfunction of these conduits.