Engineering a Cell Home for Stem Cell Homing and Accommodation

Abstract

Distilling complexity to advance regenerative medicine from laboratory animals to humans, in situ regeneration will continue to evolve using biomaterial strategies to drive endogenous cells within the human body for therapeutic purposes; this approach avoids the need for delivering ex vivo‐expanded cellular materials. Ensuring the recruitment of a significant number of reparative cells from an endogenous source to the site of interest is the first step toward achieving success. Subsequently, making the “cell home” cell‐friendly by recapitulating the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) in terms of its chemistry, structure, dynamics, and function, and targeting specific aspects of the native stem cell niche (e.g., cell–ECM and cell–cell interactions) to program and steer the fates of those recruited stem cells play equally crucial roles in yielding a therapeutically regenerative solution. This review addresses the key aspects of material‐guided cell homing and the engineering of novel biomaterials with desirable ECM composition, surface topography, biochemistry, and mechanical properties that can present both biochemical and physical cues required for in situ tissue regeneration. This growing body of knowledge will likely become a design basis for the development of regenerative biomaterials for, but not limited to, future in situ tissue engineering and regeneration.

Increased recruitment of endogenous stem cells and chondrogenic differentiation by a composite scaffold containing bone marrow homing peptide for cartilage regeneration

“…This technique is readily applied, cost-effective, has no immunogenicity concerns and does not require in vitro culture of stem cells and their in vivo delivery. Rather, it relies on host cells in situ instead 46 . Therefore, constructing an ideal biomaterial scaffold that serves as a suitable artificial cell niche for recruiting and programing the functions of the recruited stem cells and the local tissue-specific cells is considered one of the key issues.…”

Concise Review: Periodontal Tissue Regeneration Using Stem Cells: Strategies and Translational Considerations

“…Harnessing endogenous stem cells to defect sites via in vivo cell‐material interactions is the first goal of ERM. Based on this concept, multiple scaffolds combined with growth factors, antibodies, and drugs have been designed and applied to enhance cell homing and tissue regeneration .…”

“…Collectively, the data show that periodontal regeneration via in vivo cell‐material interactions motivates the self‐healing potential of the host. The biomaterials themselves and the incorporated signaling molecules that are used to recreate a proper in vivo milieu are all key to initiating the process of self‐regeneration (reviewed in ). The cascade of the mobilization of stem cells from their niches, directed cell homing, and the propagation and differentiation of the recruited cells once they reach the site of injury can potentially result in the functional regeneration of multiple periodontal tissues and their unique architectures (Fig.…”

Engineering Cell Adhesion and Orientation via Ultrafast Laser Fabricated Microstructured Substrates

“…Cell behavior in vivo is influenced by a variety of extracellular signals. It is currently clear that many cellular aspects, including adhesion, migration, spreading, proliferation, survival, apoptosis and gene expression, are modulated by interdependent signaling cascades of soluble signals, shear stresses, other supportive cells and the nature of the extracellular matrix (ECM) [1]. Thus, the main challenge and goal of tissue engineering is to mimic the features of the ECM and the surrounding environment of cells sufficiently so that cells will function in the artificial medium as they would in vivo [2].…”