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Engineering the hematopoietic stem cell niche: Frontiers in biomaterial science
Author(s) -
Choi Ji Sun,
Mahadik Bhushan P.,
Harley Brendan A. C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.144
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1860-7314
pISSN - 1860-6768
DOI - 10.1002/biot.201400758
Subject(s) - stem cell , haematopoiesis , niche , biology , stem cell niche , hematopoietic stem cell , bone marrow , biomaterial , function (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , progenitor cell , immunology , medicine , biomedical engineering , ecology
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) play a crucial role in the generation of the body's blood and immune cells. This process takes place primarily in the bone marrow in specialized 'niche' microenvironments, which provide signals responsible for maintaining a balance between HSC quiescence, self‐renewal, and lineage specification required for life‐long hematopoiesis. While our understanding of these signaling mechanisms continues to improve, our ability to engineer them in vitro for the expansion of clinically relevant HSC populations is still lacking. In this review, we focus on development of biomaterials‐based culture platforms for in vitro study of interactions between HSCs and their local microenvironment. The tools and techniques used for both examining HSC‐niche interactions as well as applying these findings towards controlled HSC expansion or directed differentiation in 2D and 3D platforms are discussed. These novel techniques hold the potential to push the existing boundaries of HSC cultures towards high‐throughput, real‐time, and single‐cell level biomimetic approaches that enable a more nuanced understanding of HSC regulation and function. Their application in conjunction with innovative biomaterial platforms can pave the way for engineering artificial bone marrow niches for clinical applications as well as elucidating the pathology of blood‐related cancers and disorders.