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Critical Reviews in Biotechnology Volume 36, 2016 - Issue 1
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Review Article

In vitro spatially organizing the differentiation in individual multicellular stem cell aggregates

Hao QiMOE Key laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Department of Medical Genome Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan, Correspondence[email protected] [email protected]
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Guoyou HuangMOE Key laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China,
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Yu Long HanMOE Key laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China,
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Wang LinMOE Key laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, Correspondence[email protected] [email protected]
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Xiujun LiDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at EI Paso, EI Paso, TX, USA, and
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Shuqi WangBrigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Tian Jian LuBioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China,
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Feng XuMOE Key laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, ;Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China,
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Pages 20-31 | Received 15 Aug 2013, Accepted 21 Feb 2014, Published online: 15 Jul 2014
 
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Abstract

With significant potential as a robust source to produce specific somatic cells for regenerative medicine, stem cells have attracted increasing attention from both academia and government. In vivo, stem cell differentiation is a process under complicated regulations to precisely build tissue with unique spatial structures. Since multicellular spheroidal aggregates of stem cells, commonly called as embryoid bodies (EBs), are considered to be capable of recapitulating the events in early stage of embryonic development, a variety of methods have been developed to form EBs in vitro for studying differentiation of embryonic stem cells. The regulation of stem cell differentiation is crucial in directing stem cells to build tissue with the correct spatial architecture for specific functions. However, stem cells within the three-dimensional multicellular aggregates undergo differentiation in a less unpredictable and spatially controlled manner in vitro than in vivo. Recently, various microengineering technologies have been developed to manipulate stem cells in vitro in a spatially controlled manner. Herein, we take the spotlight on these technologies and researches that bring us the new potential for manipulation of stem cells for specific purposes.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11372243), the Major International Joint Research Program of China (11120101002), the National 111 Project of China (B06024), Key Program for International S&T Cooperation Projects of Shaanxi (2013KW33-01), National Key Scientific Apparatus Development of Special Item (2013YQ190467), and International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2013DFG02930). FX was also partially supported by the China Young 1000-Talent Program and Shaanxi 100-Talent Program.

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