Shkumatov Artem, Baek Kwanghyun, Kong Hyunjoon
Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Apr 14;9(4):e94764. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094764. eCollection 2014.
Stem cell clusters, such as embryoid bodies (EBs) derived from embryonic stem cells, are extensively studied for creation of multicellular clusters and complex functional tissues. It is common to control phenotypes of ES cells with varying molecular compounds; however, there is still a need to improve the controllability of cell differentiation, and thus, the quality of created tissue. This study demonstrates a simple but effective strategy to promote formation of vascularized cardiac muscle-like tissue in EBs and form contracting cardiovascular organoids by modulating the stiffness of a cell adherent hydrogel. Using collagen-conjugated polyacrylamide hydrogels with controlled elastic moduli, we discovered that cellular organization in a form of vascularized cardiac muscle sheet was maximal on the gel with the stiffness similar to cardiac muscle. We envisage that the results of this study will greatly contribute to better understanding of emergent behavior of stem cells in developmental and regeneration process and will also expedite translation of EB studies to drug-screening device assembly and clinical treatments.
干细胞簇，如源自胚胎干细胞的胚状体（EBs），被广泛研究用于创建多细胞簇和复杂的功能组织。用不同的分子化合物控制胚胎干细胞的表型是很常见的；然而，仍然需要提高细胞分化的可控性，从而提高所创建组织的质量。本研究展示了一种简单而有效的策略，通过调节细胞粘附水凝胶的硬度来促进EBs中血管化心肌样组织的形成，并形成收缩性心血管类器官。使用具有可控弹性模量的胶原蛋白共轭聚丙烯酰胺水凝胶，我们发现，在与心肌刚度相似的凝胶上，血管化心肌片形式的细胞组织最为丰富。我们设想，这项研究的结果将极大地有助于更好地理解干细胞在发育和再生过程中的涌现行为，也将加快EB研究向药物筛选装置组装和临床治疗的转化。
