Influence of extracellular cues of hydrogel biomaterials on stem cell fate

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on creating functional tissue through the combination of biomimetic scaffolds, a cell source, and biochemical/physiochemical cues. Stem cells are often used as the cell source due to their multipotent properties and autologous sourcing; however, the combination of physical and chemical cues that regulate their behavior creates challenges in reproducibly directing them to a specific fate. Hydrogel biomaterials are widely explored as tissue scaffolds due to their innate biomimetic properties and tailorability. For these constructs to be successful, properties such as surface chemistry and spatial configuration, stiffness, and degradability of the biomaterial used for the scaffold framework should be analogous to the natural environment of the tissue they are repairing/replacing. This is imperative, as cues from the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) influence stem cell behavior and direct cell differentiation to a specific lineage. Hydrogels offer great promise as tools to control stem cell fate, as researchers can modulate the degradation rates, mechanical properties, swelling behavior, and chemical properties of the biomaterial scaffold to mimic the instructive cues of the native ECM. Discussion of the advantages and challenges of utilizing hydrogel biomaterials as the basis of tissue scaffolds is reviewed herein, as well as specific examples of hydrogels in tissue engineering and advances in hydrogel research to achieve desired cell phenotypes.

Keywords:

• Hydrogels
• regenerative medicine
• stem cells
• extracellular matrix
• biodegradable polymers
• extracellular cues

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1610403 and DGE-2137420); the Office of the Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin for the Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine; and the UT-Portugal Collaborative Research Program. This research was also supported by the Louisiana Board Regents Research Competitiveness program [LEQSF (2015-18)-RD-A-17] and LaSPACE Graduate Research Assistantship Program grant PO-000070225. We would like to acknowledge Rachel Eddy for the development of Figure 3 and Morgan Roque for developing the images in Figure 5.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.