Engineering Commons^™

Soft Microenvironments Promote The Early Neurogenic Differentiation But Not Self-Renewal Of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells, Albert Keung, Prashanth Asuri, Sanjay Kumar, David Schaffer

Bioengineering

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are of great interest in biology and medicine due to their ability to self-renew and differentiate into any adult or fetal cell type. Important efforts have identified biochemical factors, signaling pathways, and transcriptional networks that regulate hPSC biology. However, recent work investigating the effect of biophysical cues on mammalian cells and adult stem cells suggests that the mechanical properties of the microenvironment, such as stiffness, may also regulate hPSC behavior. While several studies have explored this mechanoregulation in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), it has been challenging to extrapolate these findings and thereby explore their …