Nano meets stem cells

Durham, NC –

As stem cell therapeutics progress towards becoming a clinical reality, it is becoming more and more apparent that not only is it important to administer the proper type of stem cells, but also to ensure that a proper environment surrounds them, so that they may differentiate into the needed tissue.

In a recent paper (Yim et al. Synthetic nanostructures inducing differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into neuronal lineage. Exp Cell Res. 2007 Mar 12) mesenchymal stem cells were demonstrated to acquire neuronal phenotype when culturing on substrates with nanogratings of 350 nm width, but not control substrate. Although treatment of mesenchymal stem cells with various retinoids was able to induce differentiation along the neural lineage, these compounds were not as effective as culturing on the nanograted substrate.

These findings provide a potentially novel method of modifying cell differentiation through culturing on specifically shaped substrates.