Modeling the behavior of human induced pluripotent stem cells seeded on melt electrospun scaffolds
Date
2017
Authors
Hall, Meghan E.
Mohtaram, Nima Khadem
Edwards, Roderick
Willeth, Stephanie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Biological Engineering
Abstract
Background: Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can form any tissue found in the body, making them
attractive for regenerative medicine applications. Seeding hiPSC aggregates into biomaterial scaffolds can control
their differentiation into specific tissue types. Here we develop and analyze a mathematical model of hiPSC aggregate
behavior when seeded on melt electrospun scaffolds with defined topography.
Results: We used ordinary differential equations to model the different cellular populations (stem, progenitor,
differentiated) present in our scaffolds based on experimental results and published literature. Our model successfully
captures qualitative features of the cellular dynamics observed experimentally. We determined the optimal parameter
sets to maximize specific cellular populations experimentally, showing that a physiologic oxygen level (∼5%)
increases the number of neural progenitors and differentiated neurons compared to atmospheric oxygen levels
(∼21%) and a scaffold porosity of ∼63% maximizes aggregate size.
Conclusions: Our mathematical model determined the key factors controlling hiPSC behavior on melt electrospun
scaffolds, enabling optimization of experimental parameters.
Description
Keywords
Stem cell, Ordinary differential equation, Differentiation, Proliferation, Tissue engineering, Centre for Biomedical Research
Citation
Hall, M.E., Mohtaram, N.K., Willerth, S.M., & Edwards, R. (2017). Modeling the behaviour of human induced pluripotent stem cells seeded on melt electrospun scaffolds. Journal of Biological Engineering, 11(38). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13036-017-0080-5