Stem Cells Surface Engineering Service

Cell surface engineering has been a promising methodology to modulate cellular function and interactions, including erythrocytes, platelets, cancer cells, leukocytes, stem cells, bacteria, etc. To improve the homing capability of stem cells, Creative Biolabs has developed various cell surface engineering strategies by chemically attaching homing signals to the cell surface to improve the homing efficiency to specific tissues. Moreover, our tailored cell surface engineering solutions and conjugates can greatly promote the adhesion, migration, and cell-cell interactions which are important factors that affect treatment outcomes of cell therapy.

Importance of Stem Cells Surface Engineering

Stem cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have become attractive candidates for regenerative medicine and cell-based therapeutics. However, a significant barrier of stem cell therapies is the inability to target a large number of viable cells with high efficiency to tissues of interest, mainly due to the poor homing capability or the loss of the homing signals during culture expansion. To overcome this challenge, cell surface engineering has been explored to chemically attach cell adhesion molecules or cytokine receptors to improve the homing efficiency.

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of both covalent and non-covalent surface modification techniques used to enhance the homing property of MSC. (Park, 2015)

Cases of Stem Cells Surface Engineering

Scientists have developed a simple platform technology to chemically attach sialyl Lewisx (SLe^X) ligand to the cell surface to improve the homing efficiency. The workflow can be concluded as three steps: (1) treating with sulfonated biotinyl-N-hydroxy-succinimide to introduce biotin groups on the cell surface; (2) adding streptavidin that binds to the biotin on the cell surface and presents unoccupied binding sites; (3) attaching biotinylated targeting ligands that promote adhesive interactions with vascular endothelium. The surface modification has no adverse impact on MSCs' native phenotype, but improves their homing capacity.

Featured Services

Combined with broad technological expertise and the latest instrumentation, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to offering cell surface engineering services that can be tailored to modulate stem cell function and interactions. We have developed an impeccable cell surface engineering platform to provide flexible solutions and various conjugates. All these changes in stem cells' surface didn't alter the cell phenotype and the multilineage differentiation potential, meanwhile, this engineering contributes to cell stability, adhesion, proliferation and homing efficiency. Creative Biolabs has accumulated experiences in the incorporation of CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), SLeX, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and other cell adhesion molecules or cytokine receptors to MSCs.

Surfaced-modified stem cells home to the target tissue with high efficiency and enhance their therapeutic outcome. If you have any interesting biomolecules that need to conjugate on the stem cell surface, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. Park, J. S.; et al. Engineering mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug delivery. Methods. 2015, 84: 3-16.