Glycosaminoglycan-Inspired Polymer Brushes Promote Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Proliferation While Retaining Trilineage Differentiation Potential.

ABSTRACT: Human mesenchymal stem/signaling cells (hMSCs) are promising therapeutics for cancer, autoimmune disorders, and musculoskeletal conditions. Given that the hMSC proliferation capacity and therapeutic potency diminish rapidly over extended passaging, expanding hMSCs into populations sufficient for clinical use remains an outstanding challenge. In this work, we synthesized cell culture substrates that mimicked key structural features of glycosaminoglycans or GAGs (e.g., brush architecture and sulfonation). hMSCs proliferated up to 40% more rapidly on GAG-inspired sulfonated polymer brushes than on currently used tissue culture polystyrene substrates (TCPs). In addition to rapid proliferation, hMSCs expanded on these sulfonated polymer brushes still retained their capacity to differentiate int

SUBMITTER: Nelson CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12862752 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature