Stem Cell Sculpting

SHAPING A COMMITMENT:© 2004 Cell PressBrightfield images of hMSCs plated onto small 1,024 μm2 or large 10,000 μm2 fibronectin islands after 1 week in growth or mixed media. Lipids stain red, alkaline phosphatase stains blue. Scale bar = 50 μm. (From R. McBeath et al., Dev Cell, 6:483–95, 2004)Researchers have tried for years to make stem cells differentiate into specific cell types. This work usually involves bathing the cells in molecular signals that affect their fate

Written byJack Lucentini

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Brightfield images of hMSCs plated onto small 1,024 μm²or large 10,000 μm²fibronectin islands after 1 week in growth or mixed media. Lipids stain red, alkaline phosphatase stains blue. Scale bar = 50 μm. (From R. McBeath et al., Dev Cell, 6:483–95, 2004)

Researchers have tried for years to make stem cells differentiate into specific cell types. This work usually involves bathing the cells in molecular signals that affect their fate. Some are finding, though, that cellular shape may be at least as influential as signal molecules in the differentiation process. This adds to a growing literature suggesting that cellular spatial structure affects many activities, including proliferation, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis.

Johns Hopkins University researchers found that shape and related characteristics of human mesenchymal stem cells (bone marrow cells that become fat, bone, cartilage, or muscle) are the strongest known factors determining their fate.1 The team ...

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