Culture of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on engineered matrix

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have huge potential to be used in cell therapies because of their pluripotency and immunoregulatory attributes. To harness and maximize the therapeutic potential of MSCs, a thorough understanding of their differentiation pathways and their responses to the microenvironment is needed. The matrix that the cells reside on is an important microenvironmental cue, not only for its chemical components but also for its physical properties. The rigidity and topography of the matrix are two physical factors that are crucial in directing cell behavior. In this chapter, we describe the isolation, culture, and characterization of MSCs. Then we illustrate the procedure of creating different matrix rigidities using acrylamide gels for MSC differentiation study. Finally, we describe how to create MSC-seeded vascular grafts using scaffolds with nano topographical features.