Stem Cell Microarrays for Assessing Growth Factor Signaling in Engineered Glycan Microenvironments
The incorporation of extracellular matrix (ECM) elements such as adhesion motifs, growth factors and signaling molecules provides unique functionalities to biomaterials in regenerative medicine. However, an often overlooked component of native microenvironments are extracellular glycans, which are key players in mediating biological processes in signaling and development. Here, we describe a cellular microarray which presents well-defined glycan structures in a synthetic hydrogel ECM microenvironment to colonies of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in a spaitally adressable format. In conjunction with synthetic glycan microenvironments, this new platform enables screening well-defined desulfated heparin glycans in the extracellular space by linking protein-glycan interactions directly with mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling events leading to differentiation. The cellular array technique provides a potent tool to rapidly optimize the glycan ECM and providing guiding principles for incorporation of functional glycan elements into biomaterial design.