A tunable silk-alginate hydrogel scaffold for stem cell culture and transplantation

Keren Ziv; Harald Nuhn; Yael Ben-Haim; Laura S Sasportas; Paul J Kempen; Thomas P Niedringhaus; Michael Hrynyk; Robert Sinclair; Annelise E Barron; Sanjiv S Gambhir

doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.01.029

A tunable silk-alginate hydrogel scaffold for stem cell culture and transplantation

Biomaterials. 2014 Apr;35(12):3736-43. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.01.029. Epub 2014 Jan 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Department of Radiology, CA, USA.
² Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, CA, USA.
³ Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Department of Radiology, CA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Department of Radiology, CA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, CA, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

One of the major challenges in regenerative medicine is the ability to recreate the stem cell niche, which is defined by its signaling molecules, the creation of cytokine gradients, and the modulation of matrix stiffness. A wide range of scaffolds has been developed in order to recapitulate the stem cell niche, among them hydrogels. This paper reports the development of a new silk-alginate based hydrogel with a focus on stem cell culture. This biocomposite allows to fine tune its elasticity during cell culture, addressing the importance of mechanotransduction during stem cell differentiation. The silk-alginate scaffold promotes adherence of mouse embryonic stem cells and cell survival upon transplantation. In addition, it has tunable stiffness as function of the silk-alginate ratio and the concentration of crosslinker--a characteristic that is very hard to accomplish in current hydrogels. The hydrogel and the presented results represents key steps on the way of creating artificial stem cell niche, opening up new paths in regenerative medicine.

Keywords: Alginate; Elasticity; Laminin; Scaffold; Silk; Stem cells.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Alginates / chemistry*
Animals
Cell Adhesion
Embryonic Stem Cells / cytology*
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Hydrogels*
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Rats
Silk / chemistry*
Stem Cell Transplantation*
Tissue Scaffolds*

Substances

Alginates
Hydrogels
Silk

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding