Abstract
Stem cells have infinite potential for regenerative therapy thanks to their advantageous ability which is differentiable to requisite cell types for recovery and self-renewal. The microsystem has been proved to be more helpful to stem cell studies compared to the traditional methods, relying on its advantageous feature of mimicking in vivo cellular environments as well as other profitable features such as minimum sample consumption for analysis and multiprocedures. A wide variety of microsystems were developed for stem cell studies; however, regenerative therapy-targeted applications of microtechnology should be more emphasized and gain more attractions since the regenerative therapy is one of ultimate goals of biologists and bioengineers. In this review, we introduce stem cell researches harnessing well-known microtechniques (microwell, micropattern, and microfluidic channel) in view point of physical principles and how these systems and principles have been implemented appropriately for characterizing stem cells and finding possible regenerative therapies. Biologists may gain information on the principles of microsystems to apply them to find solutions for their current challenges, and engineers may understand limitations of the conventional microsystems and find new chances for further developing practical microsystems. Through the well combination of engineers and biologists, the regenerative therapy-targeted stem cell researches harnessing microtechnology will find better suitable treatments for human disorders.
Highlights
Stem cells (SCs) are sensitive to various in vivo physical/metabolic/biological microenvironmental stimuli and differentiable to necessary cell types [1]
This study shows that the osteogenic differentiation of Human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSCs) was enhanced by surface topography
The results showed that hMSCs is more differentiated into vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in narrow width micropattern stripes (20 to 200 μm) comparing other range of width and nonpatterned region [37]
Summary
Stem cells (SCs) are sensitive to various in vivo physical/metabolic/biological microenvironmental stimuli and differentiable to necessary cell types [1]. The microfluidic system, born from microelectromechanical system (MEMS), created a new area of micro total analysis systems (μ-TAS) or lab-on-a-chip having the advantages such as small size of device, minimum reagent consumption, quickly reaction time, and most importantly the ability to mimic in vivo microenvironment [21]. In this regard, the microfluidic systems have been well appreciated in cell biology researches. The review is developed as follows: first, the microwell and how to apply it to stem cell studies; second, the micropatterning technique which were focused on the effect of the surface topology on stem cell reaction; third, the physical principle of diffusion/gradient/shear stress created in microfluidic channel and its application
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
