Bioengineering students create prototype lymph node for cancer patients

Yuxuan Zhou, Sonia Singh, Riyam Al-Msari and
 Arielle Hancko present their award-winning research. 

By Kiran Kumar

Four UC San Diego undergraduate bioengineering students designed a prototype of a decellularized lymph node for individuals who have had their original lymph nodes surgically removed during head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) treatment. The students– Sonia Singh, Yuxuan Zhou, Riyam Al-Msari and Arielle Hancko – completed the project for their Jacobs School of Engineering bioengineering capstone senior design project. Their work was awarded the Best Overall Poster designation at the student-run Bioengineering Day 2022.

Ninety percent of head and neck cancers originate from squamous cells: cells in the surface of the skin, and the linings of many organs in the body. These are referred to as HNSCCs. Standard treatment of HNSCCs involves surgical removal of lymph nodes in the neck. However, these lymph nodes carry a host of immune cells, which can be vital to the success of several cancer therapies, including cancer immunotherapies and radiotherapies. Without these lymph nodes, these therapies can sometimes prove ineffective.

This team of bioengineering students wanted to help those individuals who have had their lymph nodes removed still experience the benefit of immunotherapies and radiotherapies. They used tissue engineering to design decellularized lymph nodes which can be surgically implanted in place of the removed lymph nodes. Ex vivo experiments were conducted on mouse models to establish that these engineered lymph nodes had an adaptive immune response, restoring immune function. The results were promising.

“We spent most of our time on the decellularization aspect of the lymph nodes since that is the foundational aspect of tissue engineering, removing the double stranded DNA” said the team. Decellularization is very important to maintain the morphology of the tissue. Non-decellularized tissue can lead to rejection of the lymph node.

To engineer these replacement lymph nodes,  cervical lymph nodes were harvested from mice, and then washed in a phosphate buffered saline solution.  Then, sodium dodecyl sulfate was used for decellularizing the mouse lymph nodes. The tissue was recellularized using dendritic cells from the bone marrow of mice. They also attached chemokine proteins to the lymph nodes.

The team is excited that this research will be taken to the next level with in vivo experiments in mice.

“It will be completed by a senior design team next year,” the students said. “We have now completed the handover work. They will test how the mice fare with our lymph nodes, and then test the immune function of the lymph nodes.”