Developing cost-effective and scalable synthetic matrices for long-term expansion of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is important to generate large number of cells required for their clinical application. Here, we discuss the development of a synthetic hydrogel containing heparin-mimetic moieties to support long-term expansion of hPSCs for over 20 passages. HPSCs expanded on this synthetic matrix maintained their characteristic colony morphology, karyotypic stability, and pluripotency. Additionally, we identify correlations between various material properties, such as functional group, hydrophobicity, charge density, and rigidity, on various cellular responses leading to control the fate and commitment of hPSCs. The observed cellular responses are explained through matrix mediated binding of ECM proteins and growth factors. Such synthetic matrices comprising of �off-the shelf� components are easy to synthesize and do not require any sophisticated processing thus making them cost-effective and translational.

Engineering cell-material interfaces for long-term expansion of human pluripotent stem cells

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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