Cell Imprinted Substrates Modulate the Differentiation, Redifferentiation, and Transdifferentiation.

Differentiation of stem cells into mature cells, using physical approaches, is of quite interest. Here, we prepared smart nanoenvironments by cell-imprinted substrates based on chondrocytes, tenocyte, and semi-fibroblasts as templates and demonstrated their potential for differentiation, re-differentiation and trans-differentiation. Analysis of shape and upregulation/downregulation of specific genes of stem cells, which were seeded on these cell-imprinted substrates, confirmed that imprinted substrates have capability to induce specific shape and molecular characteristics of the cell types which had been used as template for the cell-imprinting. Interestingly, immuno-fluorescence staining of specific protein in chondrocytes (i.e., collagen type II) confirmed that ADSCs, semi-fibroblasts and tenocyte can acquire the chondrocyte phenotype after a 14-days culturing on chondrocyte imprinted substrates. In summary, we propose that common polystyrene tissue culture plates can be replaced by this imprinting technique as an effective promising way to regulate any cell phenotype in vitro with significant potential applications in regenerative medicine and cell based therapies.