title: Engineering complex tissue-like microgel arrays for evaluating stem cell differentiation.
abstract: Development of tissue engineering scaffolds with native-like biology and microarchitectures is a prerequisite for stem cell mediated generation of off-the-shelf-tissues. So far, the field of tissue engineering has not full-filled its grand potential of engineering such combinatorial scaffolds for engineering functional tissues. This is primarily due to the many challenges associated with finding the right microarchitectures and ECM compositions for optimal tissue regeneration. Here, we have developed a new microgel array to address this grand challenge through robotic printing of complex stem cell-laden microgel arrays. The developed microgel array platform consisted of various microgel environments that where composed of native-like cellular microarchitectures resembling vascularized and bone marrow tissue architectures. The feasibility of our array system was demonstrated through localized cell spreading and osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into complex tissue-like structures. In summary, we have developed a tissue-like microgel array for evaluating stem cell differentiation within complex and heterogeneous cell microenvironments. We anticipate that the developed platform will be used for high-throughput identification of combinatorial and native-like scaffolds for tissue engineering of functional organs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guermani
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Nanotech, Center of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Kongens Lyngby, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark.|Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Teheran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shaki
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Nanotech, Kongens Lyngby, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark.
authors.forename: Soumyaranjan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohanty
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Nanotech, Center of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Kongens Lyngby, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehrali
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ayyoob
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arpanaei
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Akhilesh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gaharwar
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Nanotech, Center of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, Kongens Lyngby, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dolatshahi-Pirouz
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002465:Cell Movement; D002470:Cell Survival; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels