Microenvironment Design for Stem Cell Fate Determination - Tissue Engineering: Cell-Surface Interactions for Tissue Culture - page 227

Microenvironment Design for Stem Cell
Fate Determination

Tali Re'em and Smadar Cohen

Abstract Stem cells are characterized by their dual ability for self-renewal and
differentiation, potentially yielding large numbers of cells that can be used in cell
therapy and tissue engineering for repairing devastating diseases. Attaining control
over stem cell fate decision in culture is a great challenge since these cells inte-
grate a complex array of ''niche'' signals, which regulate their fate. Given this, the
recent findings that synthetic microenvironments can be designed to gain some
level of control over stem cell fate are encouraging. This chapter provides an
overview of the current state and knowledge of the design of synthetic microen-
vironments bio-inspired by the adult stem cell niche. We describe the biomaterials
used for reconstituting the niche, highlighting the bioengineering principles used
in the process. Such synthetic microenvironments constitute powerful tools for
elucidating stem cell regulatory mechanisms that should fuel the development of
advanced culture systems with accurate regulation of stem cell fate.

Keywords Stem cell Microenvironment ECM

Contents

1 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 228

1.1 Stem Cell Types and Their Microenvironments ..................................................... 228

2 Microenvironmental Soluble Factors................................................................................ 232

2.1 Natural Factors.......................................................................................................... 232

2.2 Synthetic Factors ...................................................................................................... 233

3 Synthetic Extracellular Matrix .......................................................................................... 234

3.1 First Generation Materials as Artificial ECM ......................................................... 235

3.2 Bio-Inspired Materials and Scaffolds ...................................................................... 237

4 Bioreactors for Dynamic Stem Cell Microenvironment .................................................. 251

5 Conclusions and Future Directions................................................................................... 252

References ............................................................................................................................... 253

T. Re'em S. Cohen ( )

The Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 84105, Beer-Sheva Israel
e-mail: [e-mail]

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