Polymer microarray technology for stem cell engineering

Abstract

Stem cells hold remarkable promise for applications in tissue engineering and disease modeling. During the past decade, significant progress has been made in developing soluble factors (e.g., small molecules and growth factors) to direct stem cells into a desired phenotype. However, the current lack of suitable synthetic materials to regulate stem cell activity has limited the realization of the enormous potential of stem cells. This can be attributed to a large number of materials properties (e.g., chemical structures and physical properties of materials) that can affect stem cell fate. This makes it challenging to design biomaterials to direct stem cell behavior. To address this, polymer microarray technology has been developed to rapidly identify materials for a variety of stem cell applications. In this article, we summarize recent developments in polymer array technology and their applications in stem cell engineering. Statement of significance Stem cells hold remarkable promise for applications in tissue engineering and disease modeling. In the last decade, significant progress has been made in developing chemically defined media to direct stem cells into a desired phenotype. However, the current lack of the suitable synthetic materials to regulate stem cell activities has been limiting the realization of the potential of stem cells. This can be attributed to the number of variables in material properties (e.g., chemical structures and physical properties) that can affect stem cells. Polymer microarray technology has shown to be a powerful tool to rapidly identify materials for a variety of stem cell applications. Here we summarize recent developments in polymer array technology and their applications in stem cell engineering.

Droplet Microarray Based on Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces Prevents Stem Cell Differentiation and Enables High‐Throughput Stem Cell Screening

“…[5b,c] A lot of research is done to develop longterm culture systems for stem cell expansion and maintenance of stemness. [15] The positive effect of the surface roughness on maintenance of mESCs stemness observed for culture periods of 72 h was also apparent under long-term culturing conditions ( Figure S4, Supporting Information).…”

Development of peptide-functionalized synthetic hydrogel microarrays for stem cell and tissue engineering applications

“…In the literature, a series of sequentially similar RGD peptides have been utilized, such as RGD , RGD S, RGD SG and RDG SP [48–50]. Although it is well acknowledged that the amino acid(s) surrounding the key tri-peptides (RGD) can significantly influence the binding interactions between RGD peptides and integrin [51], little research has been done directly comparing the cell adhesion ability of RGD , RGD S, RGD SG and RGD SP [23]. Our peptide-functionalized PEG hydrogel system can allow for a direct comparison of cell adhesion ability of these RGD peptides.…”

“…Polymer array technology has emerged as a powerful tool for the rapid identification of suitable materials for a variety of stem cell and tissue engineering applications [1–7]. To fabricate synthetic polymer microarrays, photopolymerization of (meth)-acrylates has been extensively utilized [4, 8–14].…”

“…This is due to their high polymerization rate, as well as the high solubility of (meth)-acrylates in high boiling point organic solvents (e.g., DMF). While this strategy allows for the preparation of synthetic polymers with diversified properties, these polymers usually do not contain biological ligands to directly interact with cell surface receptors (e.g., integrin and growth factor receptors) [7, 15]. The biological functions of these polymers usually depend upon the serum/extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins adsorbed on their surface from pre-conditioning solution and/or cell culture media [5, 10].…”

“…Another approach to prepare peptide-functionalized SAM microarrays has been developed by Murphy and coworkers [18]. They leveraged the carbodiimide catalyzed conjugation reactions between the n-terminal primary amine of peptides and carboxylic acid terminated SAMs to prepare peptide microarrays [19, 23]. …”