KCS

Extensive research has been conducted on the regulation of stem cell differentiations by altering physicochemical factors of the contacting materials, including stiffness, microtopography, and three-dimensional mechanical strength. However, the importance of the surface mobility of polymer surfaces in a hydrated state, one of the characteristic properties of polymer surfaces, in controlling stem cell differentiation, is not yet gaining much attention. A simple surface treatment capable of regulating stem cell lineages by changing the molecular mobility has great potential for many biomedical applications because it provides a simple and convenient method of directing stem cell lineage on various material surfaces without changing the bulk properties. In the present study, we report the feasibility of directing stem cell differentiation on supramolecular surfaces that are prepared with a simple surface treatment. The underlying concept that we applied is modulating the morphology of adhering stem cells using a wide range of molecular mobility of polymer surfaces in a hydrated state. Because morphologies of adhering stem cells have been known as an important factor in determining stem cell differerntiation, we hypothesized that a simply deposited supramolecular surfaces capable of changing the adhesion morphology of cells could induce different stem cell differentiation. Polyrotaxane (PRX) is a supermolecule that contains molecularly movable host molecules [e.g., α-cyclodextrin (α-CD)] threaded on a linear guest molecule [e.g., poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)]. By adopting this threaded macromolecular structure of polyrotaxanes, we developed polymer surfaces with a wide range of surface mobility by simple deposition method. The effect of surface mobility on the differentiation tendency of the adhering stem cell will be introduced.