The role of endothelial cells in the retinal stem and progenitor cell niche within a 3D engineered hydrogel matrix

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• 作者：Yukie Aizawa^a ; Molly S. Shoichet^a ; ^b ; ^c ; ^{molly.shoichet@utoronto.ca}
• 关键词：Tissue engineering ; Retinal stem and progenitor cells ; Endothelial cells ; 3D and 2D co-culture
• 刊名：Biomaterials
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：7_01429612
• 类别：ms
• 出版时间：July, 2012
• 卷：33
• 期：21
• 页码：5198-5205
• 文件大小：925 K

摘要

Cell-cell interactions are critical to understanding functional tissues. A number of stem cell populations have been shown to receive key regulatory information from endothelial cells (ECs); however, the role of ECs in the retinal stem and progenitor cell (RSPC) niche has been largely unexplored. To gain greater insight into the role of ECs on RSPC fate, a three-dimensional (3D) co-culture model, incorporating cell-cell interactions, was designed by covalently-modifying agarose hydrogels with growth factors and cell-adhesive peptides in defined volumes. Therein ECs adopted tubular-like morphologies similar to those observed in聽vivo, but not observed in two-dimensional (2D) cultures. Unexpectedly, ECs inhibited proliferation and differentiation of RSPCs, revealing, for the first time, the possible role of ECs on RSPC fate. This 3D hydrogel scaffold provides a simple, reproducible and versatile method with which to answer biological questions related to the cellular microenvironment.