Nanopatterned Surfaces for Stem-Cell Engineering

Abstract

Over the past few decades, developments of nanopatterned surfaces and their application to create an in-vivo-like stem cell microenvironment for controlling stem-cell behavior have gained increasing attention due to their ability to overcome several obstacles in stem-cell-based therapies for injuries and degenerative diseases, such as the development of advanced techniques to understand and control functions of microenvironmental signals. This chapter details with the application of nanopatterend surfaces and nanotechnology in stem-cell biology and further toward regenerative medicine. We have focused on techniques that can be used to develop highly controlled nanotopographical substrates and to investigate the effects of structure geometry, width, depth, orientation, or pattern of various surfaces on the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. © 2015 Wiley-Blackwell. All rights reserved.