Artificial Spider Silk for Stem Cell Culture

Abstract

There is a great need for defined cell culture systems that allow expansion of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and subsequent controlled differentiation, ideally in an implantable three-dimensional (3D) matrix. Spider silk appears to be an ideal biomaterial, since it is strong, extendible, and has favorable properties when implanted in living tissues. Spiders are difficult to house and therefor methods for recombinant production of spider silk are warranted. We have developed a method for production of recombinant spider silk fibers, films and foams that are used for the design of defined and xeno-free cell culture matrices. The matrices enable long-term expansion of multiple hPSC lines and subsequent differentiation into all three germ layers in 3D. This hPSC culture method provides robust, defined, easily produced and flexible culture environments for hPSCs (1). These matrices are promising but to realize their full potential, we need to spin continuous fibers in a reproducible way. Spider silk fibers are produced from soluble spidroins under ambient conditions. The spidroins are large and highly repetitive in sequence but capped by non-repetitive N- and C-terminal domains (NT and CT). In the gland, a pH gradient, that goes from 7.6 to

Published in

Publisher: MRS (Materials Research Society)

Conference

2015 MRS Spring Meeting. San Francisco, California. April 6-10

SLU Authors

• Rising, Anna

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Karolinska Institute

• Andersson, Marlene

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Wu, Siqin

  • Karolinska Institute

• Johansson, Jan

  • Karolinska Institute

UKÄ Subject classification

Cell and Molecular Biology

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68656