Abstract

The physical microenvironment is known to influence vital cellular processes such as cell migration, morphogenesis and differentiation. Indeed, cells are able to sense and respond to biomechanical cues emanating from their interaction with the extracellular cell matrix (ECM) via specialized adhesion machinery consisting of integrin, vinculin, talin etc. Thus, engineering the cellular physical microenvironment can enable us to modulate a plethora of cell functions ranging from differentiation to self-assembly-mediated tissue morphogenesis.

In this seminar, the influence of adhesion restriction on self-assembly, differentiation and cell fate determination using both mouse ES cells and human iPS cells will be highlighted. In particular, it will be demonstrated that adhesion restriction imposed by suspended microstructured meshes can simply and reproducibly direct the differentiation of hiPSCs cells into trophoblast-like lineage without chemical stimulation, yielding cysts which express Cdx2 (a trophoblast marker) and secrete hormones such as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone. The take away message is that mechanical approach to stem cell fate regulation can provide an alternative means to generate desired tissues or organ models not only for regenerative medicine but also for in vitro reconstitution of disease conditions for detailed mechanistic studies.