Bio-inspired oligovitronectin-grafted surface for enhanced self-renewal and long-term maintenance of human pluripotent stem cells under feeder-free conditions.
Current protocols for human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) expansion require feeder cells or matrices from animal sources that have been the major obstacle to obtain clinical grade hPSCs due to safety issues, difficulty in quality control, and high expense. Thus, feeder-free, chemically defined synthetic platforms have been developed, but are mostly confined to typical polystyrene culture plates. Here, we report a chemically defined, material-independent, bio-inspired surface coating allowing for feeder-free expansion and maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of hPSCs on various polymer substrates and devices. Polydopamine (pDA)-mediated immobilization of vitronectin (VN) peptides results in surface functionalization of VN-dimer/pDA conjugates. The engineered surfaces facilitate adhesion, proliferation, and colony formation of hPSCs via enhanced focal adhesion, cell-cell interaction, and biophysical signals, providing a chemically defined, xeno-free culture system for clonal expansion and long-term maintenance of hPSCs. This surface engineering enables the application of clinically-relevant hPSCs to a variety of biomedical systems such as tissue-engineering scaffolds and medical devices.
Department of Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea.
Hyun-Ji
HJ
Park
Department of Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea.
Kisuk
K
Yang
Department of Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea.
Mun-Jung
MJ
Kim
Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea.
Jiho
J
Jang
Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
Mihyun
M
Lee
Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea.
Dong-Wook
DW
Kim
Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: haeshin@kaist.ac.kr.
Haeshin
H
Lee
Department of Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: seungwoocho@yonsei.ac.kr.
Seung-Woo
SW
Cho
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D000066673:Cell Self Renewal / Q000187:drug effects*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002999:Clone Cells; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D061252:Feeder Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D022001:Focal Adhesions / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007211:Indoles / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D013499:Surface Properties; D019096:Vitronectin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
D007211:Indoles; D011108:Polymers; D019096:Vitronectin; C568283:polydopamine
Feeder-free maintenance; Human pluripotent stem cells; Material-independent surface coating; Polydopamine; Vitronectin peptide