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Engineering Approaches Toward Deconstructing and Controlling the Stem Cell Environment

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Abstract

Stem cell-based therapeutics have become a vital component in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The microenvironment within which stem cells reside, i.e., the niche, plays a crucial role in regulating stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. However, current biological techniques lack the means to recapitulate the complexity of this microenvironment. Nano- and microengineered materials offer innovative methods to (1) deconstruct the stem cell niche to understand the effects of individual elements; (2) construct complex tissue-like structures resembling the niche to better predict and control cellular processes; and (3) transplant stem cells or activate endogenous stem cell populations for regeneration of aged or diseased tissues. In this article, we highlight some of the latest advances in this field and discuss future applications and directions of the use of nano- and microtechnologies for stem cell engineering.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (DMR 0847287), the office of Naval Research Young National Investigator Award, and the National Institutes of Health (HL092836, EB008392, DE021468, AR05837, EB012597, HL099073).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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  1. Center for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Partners Research Building, Room 252, 65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Faramarz Edalat, Hojae Bae, Sam Manoucheri, Jae Min Cha & Ali Khademhosseini

  2. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Faramarz Edalat, Hojae Bae, Sam Manoucheri, Jae Min Cha & Ali Khademhosseini

  3. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ali Khademhosseini

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Correspondence to Ali Khademhosseini.

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Associate Editor Jennifer West oversaw the review of this article.

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Edalat, F., Bae, H., Manoucheri, S. et al. Engineering Approaches Toward Deconstructing and Controlling the Stem Cell Environment. Ann Biomed Eng 40, 1301–1315 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0452-9

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