4 Hydrogels for mesenchymal stem cell behavior study

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are self-renewing, multipotent stem cells with the ability to differentiate into mesoderm-type cells, such as adipocytes, osteocytes, and chondrocytes. MSCs have also been reported to differentiate into other cell types such as neurons, smooth muscle cells, and hepatocytes in vitro. Consequently, they constitute an interesting candidate for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine purposes. However, the perfect control of MSC commitment toward a desired lineage has still not been achieved, which is an obstacle for their use in clinical applications. In this context, hydrogels have been identified as a promising tool to mimic the properties of the native extracellular matrix of cells and to investigate the response of cells to many different features. Indeed, hydrogel properties, such as topography, porosity, mechanical properties, and biomolecule presentation, are easily tunable and can lead to significantly different cell behavior in terms of cellular attachment, proliferation, and differentiation. In addition, hydrogels offer the possibility to encapsulate cells, and therefore compare cell response between two-dimensional environments, typically used in traditional cell culture experiments, and three-dimensional environments, more representative of the cell in in vivo environment. Therefore, this chapter aims at gathering the accumulated knowledge on the control of MSC behavior by using hydrogels as a cell culture material, which might help designing appropriate biomaterials for clinical applications.