ABSTRACT
A 30-year-old woman with idiopathic intracranial hypertension experienced worsening headaches and decreasing vision in her left eye. She underwent an uncomplicated ventriculoperitoneal shunt procedure but the following day was found to have cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Treatment included venous sinus thrombectomy and anticoagulation. She had a favourable clinical outcome. Extensive evaluation including testing for thrombophilia was unremarkable. Potential causes for this rare association are discussed.
ABSTRACT
White adipose tissue (WAT) is a critical organ in both health and disease. However, physiologically faithful tissue culture models of primary human WAT remain limited, at best. In this study we describe a novel WAT culture system in which primary human WAT is sandwiched between tissue-engineered sheets of adipose-derived stromal cells. This construct, called "sandwiched white adipose tissue" (SWAT), can be defined as a microphysiological system (MPS) since it is a tissue-engineered, multicellular, three-dimensional organ construct produced using human cells. We validated SWAT against the National Institutes of Health MPS standards and found that SWAT is viable in culture for 8 weeks, retains physiologic responses to exogenous signaling, secretes adipokines, and engrafts into animal models. These attributes position SWAT as a powerful tool for the study of WAT physiology, pathophysiology, personalized medicine, and pharmaceutical development.