Mesenchymal morphogenesis of embryonic stem cells dynamically modulates the biophysical microtissue niche.

Stem cell fate and function are dynamically modulated by the interdependent relationships between biochemical and biophysical signals constituting the local 3D microenvironment. While approaches to recapitulate the stem cell niche have been explored for directing stem cell differentiation, a quantitative relationship between embryonic stem cell (ESC) morphogenesis and intrinsic biophysical cues within three-dimensional microtissues has not been established. In this study, we demonstrate that mesenchymal embryonic microtissues induced by BMP4 exhibited increased stiffness and viscosity accompanying differentiation, with cytoskeletal tension significantly contributing to multicellular stiffness. Perturbation of the cytoskeleton during ESC differentiation led to modulation of the biomechanical and gene expression profiles, with the resulting cell phenotype and biophysical properties being highly correlated by multivariate analyses. Together, this study elucidates the dynamics of biophysical and biochemical signatures within embryonic microenvironments, with broad implications for monitoring tissue dynamics, modeling pathophysiological and embryonic morphogenesis and directing stem cell patterning and differentiation.

Alginate encapsulation parameters influence the differentiation of microencapsulated embryonic stem cell aggregates.

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have tremendous potential as tools for regenerative medicine and drug discovery, yet the lack of processes to manufacture viable and homogenous cell populations of sufficient numbers limits the clinical translation of current and future cell therapies. Microencapsulation of ESCs within microbeads can shield cells from hydrodynamic shear forces found in bioreactor environments while allowing for sufficient diffusion of nutrients and oxygen through the encapsulation material. Despite initial studies examining alginate microbeads as a platform for stem cell expansion and directed differentiation, the impact of alginate encapsulation parameters on stem cell phenotype has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to systematically examine the effects of varying alginate compositions on microencapsulated ESC expansion and phenotype. Pre-formed aggregates of murine ESCs were encapsulated in alginate microbeads composed of a high or low ratio of guluronic to mannuronic acid residues (High G and High M, respectively), with and without a poly-L-lysine (PLL) coating, thereby providing four distinct alginate bead compositions for analysis. Encapsulation in all alginate compositions was found to delay differentiation, with encapsulation within High G alginate yielding the least differentiated cell population. The addition of a PLL coating to the High G alginate prevented cell escape from beads for up to 14 days. Furthermore, encapsulation within High M alginate promoted differentiation toward a primitive endoderm phenotype. Taken together, the findings of this study suggest that distinct ESC expansion capacities and differentiation trajectories emerge depending on the alginate composition employed, indicating that encapsulation material physical properties can be used to control stem cell fate.

Stiffening of human mesenchymal stem cell spheroid microenvironments induced by incorporation of gelatin microparticles.

Culturing multipotent adult mesenchymal stem cells as 3D aggregates augments their differentiation potential and paracrine activity. One caveat of stem cell spheroids, though, can be the limited diffusional transport barriers posed by the inherent 3D structure of the multicellular aggregates. In order to circumvent such limitations, polymeric microparticles have been incorporated into stem cell aggregates as a means to locally control the biochemical and physical properties of the 3D microenvironment. However, the introduction of biomaterials to the 3D stem cell microenvironment could alter the mechanical forces sensed by cells within aggregates, which in turn could impact various cell behaviors and overall spheroid mechanics. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the acute effects of biomaterial incorporation within mesenchymal stem cell spheroids on aggregate structure and mechanical properties. The results of this study demonstrate that although gelatin microparticle incorporation results in similar multi-cellular organization within human mesenchymal stem cell spheroids, the introduction of gelatin materials significantly impacts spheroid mechanical properties. The marked differences in spheroid mechanics induced by microparticle incorporation may hold major implications for in vitro directed differentiation strategies and offer a novel route to engineer the mechanical properties of tissue constructs ex vivo.

Systematic analysis of embryonic stem cell differentiation in hydrodynamic environments with controlled embryoid body size.

The sensitivity of stem cells to environmental perturbations has prompted many studies which aim to characterize the influence of mechanical factors on stem cell morphogenesis and differentiation. Hydrodynamic cultures, often employed for large scale bioprocessing applications, impart complex fluid shear and transport profiles, and influence cell fate as a result of changes in media mixing conditions. However, previous studies of hydrodynamic cultures have been limited in their ability to distinguish confounding factors that may affect differentiation, including modulation of embryoid body size in response to changes in the hydrodynamic environment. In this study, we demonstrate the ability to control and maintain embryoid body (EB) size using a combination of forced aggregation formation and rotary orbital suspension culture, in order to assess the impact of hydrodynamic cultures on ESC differentiation, independent of EB size. Size-controlled EBs maintained at different rotary orbital speeds exhibited similar morphological features and gene expression profiles, consistent with ESC differentiation. The similar differentiation of ESCs across a range of hydrodynamic conditions suggests that controlling EB formation and resultant size may be important for scalable bioprocessing applications, in order to standardize EB morphogenesis. However, perturbations in the hydrodynamic environment also led to subtle changes in differentiation toward certain lineages, including temporal modulation of gene expression, as well changes in the relative efficiencies of differentiated phenotypes, thereby highlighting important tissue engineering principles that should be considered for implementation in bioreactor design, as well as for directed ESC differentiation.