Open AccessHuman Pluripotent Stem Cell Mechanobiology: Manipulating the Biophysical Microenvironment for Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Applications
Author(s) -
Ireland Ronald G.,
Simmons Craig A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
stem cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.159
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1549-4918
pISSN - 1066-5099
DOI - 10.1002/stem.2105
Subject(s) - regenerative medicine , induced pluripotent stem cell , mechanobiology , biology , stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , tissue engineering , cellular differentiation , cell type , cell , embryonic stem cell , neuroscience , genetics , gene
A stem cell in its microenvironment is subjected to a myriad of soluble chemical cues and mechanical forces that act in concert to orchestrate cell fate. Intuitively, many of these soluble and biophysical factors have been the focus of intense study to successfully influence and direct cell differentiation in vitro. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have been of considerable interest in these studies due to their great promise for regenerative medicine. Culturing and directing differentiation of hPSCs, however, is currently extremely labor‐intensive and lacks the efficiency required to generate large populations of clinical‐grade cells. Improved efficiency may come from efforts to understand how the cell biophysical signals can complement biochemical signals to regulate cell pluripotency and direct differentiation. In this concise review, we explore hPSC mechanobiology and how the hPSC biophysical microenvironment can be manipulated to maintain and differentiate hPSCs into functional cell types for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications. S tem C ells 2015;33:3187–3196