Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2015; 7(2): 243-252
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i2.243
Substrates for clinical applicability of stem cells
Sanjar Enam, Sha Jin
Sanjar Enam, Sha Jin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Thomas J Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, State University of New York in Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, United States
Author contributions: Enam S and Jin S contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sha Jin, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Thomas J Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, State University of New York in Binghamton, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Binghamton, NY 13902, United States. sjin@binghamton.edu
Telephone: +1-607-7775082 Fax: +1-607-7775780
Received: July 17, 2014
Peer-review started: July 18, 2014
First decision: September 28, 2014
Revised: October 23, 2014
Accepted: December 18, 2014
Article in press: December 19, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Processing time: 246 Days and 2.1 Hours
Abstract

The capability of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to differentiate into a variety of cells in the human body holds great promise for regenerative medicine. Many substrates exist on which hPSCs can be self-renewed, maintained and expanded to further the goal of clinical application of stem cells. In this review, we highlight numerous extracellular matrix proteins, peptide and polymer based substrates, scaffolds and hydrogels that have been pioneered. We discuss their benefits and shortcomings and offer future directions as well as emphasize commercially available synthetic peptides as a type of substrate that can bring the benefits of regenerative medicine to clinical settings.

Keywords: Human pluripotent stem cells; Extracellular matrix protein; Synthetic substrate; Peptide; Polymer; Scaffold; Hydrogel

Core tip: This review article highlights numerous extracellular matrix proteins, peptide and polymer based substrates, scaffolds and hydrogels that have been pioneered for human pluripotent stem cell self-renewal for stem cell-based therapy. The benefits and shortcomings of these substrates as well as future direction that can bring the benefits of regenerative medicine to clinical settings are discussed.