Submitted on January 12, 2009
Revised on March 24, 2009
Accepted on March 24, 2009
Essential environmental cues from the satellite cell niche: Optimizing proliferation and differentiation
Kristel J.M. Boonen1, Kang Yuen Rosaria-Chak1, Frank P.T. Baaijens1, Daisy W.J. van der Schaft1, and Mark J Post2*
1 Eindhoven University of Technology
2 Maastricht University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: m.post{at}fys.unimaas.nl.
The use of Muscle Progenitor Cells (MPCs) for regenerative medicine has been severely compromised by their decreased proliferative and differentiative capacity after culturing in vitro. We hypothesized the loss of pivotal niche factors to be the cause. Therefore, we investigated the proliferative and differentiative response of passage 0 murine MPCs to varying substrate elasticities and protein coatings and found that proliferation was influenced only by elasticity, whereas differentiation was influenced by both elasticity and protein coating. A stiffness of 21 kPa optimally increased the proliferation of MPCs. Regarding differentiation, we demonstrated that fusion of MPCs into myotubes takes place regardless of elasticity. However, ongoing maturation with cross-striations and contractions occurred only on elasticities higher than 3 kPa. Furthermore, maturation was fastest on poly-lysine and laminin coatings.
