Propagation and Purification of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with Selective Homopolymer Release Surfaces

The selective detachment of undifferentiated human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a thermal release coating, fabricated from a tailored poly(di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (PDEGMA) homopolymer layer on gold, is reported. By exploiting the mild, thermally triggered release of iPS cell colonies in the absence of any releasing reagent, pluripotent iPS cells are shown to be selectively separated from spontaneously differentiated cells. The maintained pluripotency and high cell viability of detached and reseeded iPS cell colonies were confirmed and suggest the feasibility of a generally applicable platform approach for cell separation and purification in the context of iPS cell culture, differentiation of pathologically altered cells and normal cells, as well as isolation of different cell types derived from certain tissues, for example, from biopsies.