Creation of hydrogel allows "single step process never achieved before"

Scientists at the University of Nottingham have created a hydrogel that allows for the growth of stem cells and their conversion not heart cells.

They say the discovery could simplify cell therapy, the rapidly developing area of regenerative medicine in which stems cells have the potential to repair human tissue and organs in people suffering from chronic diseases and age related conditions.

Although there has been successful research into stem cell treatments, the problem remained how to mass produce them.

A breakthrough heralded in Japan earlier this year has been discredited after an investigation found some of that research had been falsified. That research had suggested a method of dipping blood cells into acid to produce stem cells – but it was thrown into question when scientist failed to produce stem cells using the method elsewhere.

The scientists are Nottingham say there are two phases to stem cell production. The first is producing enough cells to form a large piece of tissue, while the second is the process of turning these into functional cells. Up until now, they say the two processes have had to be kept quite separate.

But their discovery means there is now a single substance for both processes.
The multi-disciplinary team of researchers at Nottingham have created a new stem cell micro-environment which they have found has allowed both the self-renewal of cells and then their evolution into cardiomyocyte (heart) cells.

The material is a hydrogel containing two polymers – an alginate-rich environment which allows proliferation of cells with a simple chemical switch to render the environment collagen-rich when the cell population is large enough.This change triggers the next stage of cell growth when cells develop a specific purpose.

Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering, Kevin Shakesheff, said: “Our new combination of hydrogels is a first. It allows dense tissue structures to be produced from human pluripotent stem cells (HPSC) in a single step process never achieved before.

"The discovery has important implications for the future of manufacturing in regenerative medicine. This field of healthcare is a major priority for the UK and we are seeing increasing investment in future manufacturing processes to ensure we are ready to deliver real treatments to patients when HPSC products and treatments go to trial and become standard.”

The research, Combined hydrogels that switch human pluripotent stem cells from self-renewal to differentiation, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The work was funded by the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing for Regenerative Medicine in which The University of Nottingham is a partner. The centre brings together experts in stem cell biology, materials science, pharmaceutical sciences and manufacturing.