A soft touch to facilitate differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells
Stem cells, capable of differentiating into any tissue in the human body, are a vital tool to investigate how humans develop and may hold the key for personalised regenerative medicines. A precise symphony of chemical cues is needed to direct the differentiation of these cells and, in a study recently published in iScience, scientists from the Marseille Developmental Biology Institute (https://www.ibdm.univ-amu.fr/fr/, Aix-Marseille Université / CNRS) and the Interdisciplinary Center of Nanoscience of Marseille (https://www.cinam.univ-mrs.fr/cinam/, Aix-Marseille Université / CNRS) have demonstrated how the mechanical setting also plays a crucial role in cell differentiation. The results represent another important step towards the development of stem cell therapies.
Humans develop from embryonic stem cells, each of which can specialise into all types of cells that make up the adult body. We refer to these cells as “pluripotent”. In 2012, a Nobel Prize was awarded for showing that this process is reversible, and adult cells can be induced back to their pluripotent state. In the decade following, much work has been done to identify drug treatments to chemically signal to these cells to follow particular lines of development, however comparatively little had been done to investigate the effects of mechanical signalling. Human tissues are incredibly physically diverse, for example brain tissue is very soft, while bone tissue is very stiff, and stiffer still are the plastic and glass materials typically used to grow these cells in labs. On this basis, the scientists from IBDM and CINaM hypothesised that changing the mechanical environment may affect how cells respond to developmental cues.
A soft touch
Silicones are synthetic materials of varying stiffnesses, commonly used as electronic encapsulants. Coincidentally, the properties that help silicones to protect sensitive circuitry also make them effective materials for cell culture. By fabricating soft silicone surfaces for the cells to grow on, the team of scientists found that using these materials encourages more cells to respond to developmental signals. The scientists showed that this was due to changes in how cells grow, move, and interact with one another; which leave them more exposed to chemical signals. It is thought that these results will improve the efficiency of procedures to differentiate stem cells, and provide a foundation to further investigate the effects of combined mechanical and chemical signalling during early human development.
More information: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110557