Macromolecular crowding and stem cells platform

Growing cells on culture plastic in dilute aqueous media hardly compares to the macromolecularly crowded microenvironments they orignate from. To create conditions that come closer to tissue physiology we have developed low viscosity culture additives comprising mixtures of carbohydrate-based macromolecules that dramatically enhance extracellular matrix deposition and thus enable both differentiated cells and stem cells to build their own complex microenvironments. The resulting dynamic cell-matrix reciprocity fuels profound benefitial effects on MSC culture including substantially increased proliferation rates while retaining their differentiation capacity. We use this novel technology to build adipose tissue from MSC’s for metabolic studies, to generate mesenchymal progenitor cells from peripheral blood, and to aid the building of stable tissue constructs. We study the biophysical effects of macromolecular crowding in simpler models and by computer simulation.