Department of Chemical and Biolomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2018 Jun;7(12):e1800225. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201800225. Epub 2018 May 2.
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offer considerable potential for biomedical applications including drug screening and cell replacement therapies. Clinical translation of hPSCs requires large quantities of high quality cells, so scalable methods for cell culture are needed. However, current methods are limited by scalability, the use of animal-derived components, and/or low expansion rates. A thermoresponsive 3D hydrogel for scalable hPSC expansion and differentiation into several defined lineages is recently reported. This system would benefit from increased control over material properties to further tune hPSC behavior, and here a scalable 3D biomaterial with the capacity to tune both the chemical and the mechanical properties is demonstrated to promote hPSC expansion under defined conditions. This 3D biomaterial, comprised of hyaluronic acid and poly(N-isopropolyacrylamide), has thermoresponsive properties that readily enable mixing with cells at low temperatures, physical encapsulation within the hydrogel upon elevation at 37 °C, and cell recovery upon cooling and reliquefaction. After optimization, the resulting biomaterial supports hPSC expansion over long cell culture periods while maintaining cell pluripotency. The capacity to modulate the mechanical and chemical properties of the hydrogel provides a new avenue to expand hPSCs for future therapeutic application.
人类多能干细胞(hPSCs)在药物筛选和细胞替代疗法等生物医学应用中具有巨大潜力。hPSCs 的临床转化需要大量高质量的细胞,因此需要可扩展的细胞培养方法。然而,目前的方法受到可扩展性、动物源性成分的使用以及/或低扩增率的限制。最近报道了一种用于可扩展 hPSC 扩增和分化为几种特定谱系的热响应性 3D 水凝胶。为了进一步调整 hPSC 的行为,该系统将受益于对材料特性的更多控制,这里展示了一种具有调节化学和机械性能能力的可扩展 3D 生物材料,以在定义的条件下促进 hPSC 扩增。这种由透明质酸和聚(N-异丙基丙烯酰胺)组成的 3D 生物材料具有热响应特性,可在低温下与细胞混合,在 37°C 时在水凝胶内物理封装,并在冷却和重新液化时回收细胞。经过优化,所得生物材料支持 hPSC 在长细胞培养期间扩增,同时保持细胞多能性。调节水凝胶机械和化学性质的能力为未来治疗应用扩展 hPSCs 提供了新途径。