Patterned plastic for growing stem cells

A nanopatterned surface could provide a new way to culture adult stem cells, which could lead to revolutionary therapies for arthritis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Southampton have used injection moulding to created a surface covered with 120-nanometre pits – these pits provide a much more effective surface for stem cells to grow and spread whilst retaining their stem cells characteristics.

“Until now, it’s been very difficult to grow stem cells in sufficient numbers and maintain them as stem cells for use in therapy,” said Dr Matthew Dalby, who led the researcher at Glasgow. “We have shown that this new nanostructured surface can be used to very effectively culture mesenchymal stem cells, taken from sources such as bone marrow, which can then be put to use in musculoskeletal, orthopaedic and connective tissues.”

Dalby said that if the same process can be used to culture other types of stem cells, the technology could be the first step to developing large-scale stem cells culture factories which would allow for the creation of a wide range of therapies for common diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“We’re very excited about the potential applications of the technology and we’re already in the early stages of conversations to make the surface commercially available,” said Dalby.

“If this new technology enables us to create sufficient stem cells, and to pattern hip implants for example, it could herald the development of new medical devices with therapeutic application and approaches to understanding stem cell fate and regulation,” said Professor Richard Oreffo, who led the team at Southampton.

The work was published in Nature Materials: Nanoscale surfaces for the long-term maintenance of mesenchymal stem cell phenotype and multipotency