title: Development of large-scale size-controlled adult pancreatic progenitor cell clusters by an inkjet-printing technique.
abstract: The generation of transplantable β-cells from pancreatic progenitor cells (PPCs) could serve as an ideal cell-based therapy for diabetes. Because the transplant efficiency depends on the size of islet-like clusters, it becomes one of the key research topics to produce PPCs with controlled cluster sizes in a scalable manner. In this study, we used inkjet printing to pattern biogenic nanoparticles, i.e., mutant tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), with different spot sizes to support the formation of multicellular clusters by PPCs. We successfully achieved TMV particle patterns with variable features and sizes by adjusting the surface wettability and printing speed. The spot sizes of cell-adhesive TMV mutant arrays were in the range of 50-150 μm diameter. Mouse PPCs were seeded on the TMV-RGD (arginine-glycine-aspartate)-patterned polystyrene (PS) substrate, which consists of areas that either favor (TMV-RGD) or prohibit (bare PS) cell adhesion. The PPCs stably attached, proliferated on top of the TMV-RGD support, thus resulting in the formation of uniform and confluent PPC clusters. Furthermore, the aggregated PPCs also maintained their multipotency and were positive for E-cadherin, indicating that the formation of cell-cell junctions is critical for enhanced cell-cell contact.
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Rubo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: †State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yanchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: §College of Life Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chunbo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: ∥Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, 631 Sumter Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D061249:Batch Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016287:Computer Peripherals; D019397:Pancreas, Artificial; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000737:chemistry; D014771:Virion / Q000737:chemistry*
keywords: cell cluster; inkjet printing; pancreatic progenitor cell; surface pattern; tobacco mosaic virus