Synthetic substrates for long-term stem cell culture

Stem cells have a host of applications in regenerative medicine and basic research. However, clinical translation hinges on the availability of effective stem cell expansion. Stem cell expansion has been limited due to the use of xenogenic factors in the culture system, batch-to-batch variation, and processes that do not readily lend themselves to scale-up. Synthetic substrates represent attractive alternatives to standard feeder layer culture, as they address many of these pressing limitations. Specifically, we use a grafting-to approach to create a zwitterionic hydrogel capable of maintaining human pluripotent stem cells in long-term culture. This approach enables the control of substrate physiochemical properties, is relatively inexpensive, and results in a substrate with good storage and sterilization stability. In this feature, we focus on the contributions of our culture system to prolonged stem cell culture and compare it to other culture systems currently available.