Soft substrate maintains proliferative and adipogenic differentiation potential of human mesenchymal stem cells on long-term expansion by delaying senescence

Abstract Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), when cultured on tissue culture plate (TCP) for in vitro expansion, they spontaneously lose their proliferative capacity and multi-lineage differentiation potential. They also lose their distinct spindle morphology and become large and flat. After a certain number of population doubling, they enter into permanent cell cycle arrest, called senescence. This is a major roadblock for clinical use of hMSCs which demands large number of cells. A cell culture system is needed which can maintain the stemness of hMSCs over long term passages yet simple to use. In this study, we explore the role of substrate rigidity in maintaining stemness. hMSCs were serially passaged on TCP and 5 kPa poly-acrylamide gel for 20 population doubling. It was found that while on TCP, cell growth reached a plateau at cumulative population doubling (CPD) = 12.5, on 5 kPa gel, they continue to proliferate linearly till we monitored (CPD = 20). We also found that while on TCP, late passage MSCs lost their adipogenic potential, the same was maintained on soft gel. Cell surface markers related to MSCs were also unaltered. We demonstrated that this maintenance of stemness was correlated with delay in onset of senescence, which was confirmed by β-gal assay and by differential expression of vimentin, Lamin A and Lamin B. As preparation of poly-acrylamide gel is a simple, well established, and well standardized protocol, we believe that this system of cell expansion will be useful in therapeutic and research applications of hMSCs. One Sentence Summary hMSCs retain their stemness when expanded in vitro on soft polyacrylamide gel coated with collagen by delaying senescence. Significance Statement For clinical applications, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are required in large numbers. As MSCs are available only in scarcity in vivo , to fulfill the need, extensive in vitro expansion is unavoidable. However, on expansion, they lose their replicative and multi-lineage differentiation potential and become senescent. A culture system that can maintain MSC stemness on long-term expansion, without compromising the stemness, is need of the hour. In this paper, we identified polyacrylamide (PAA) hydrogel of optimum stiffness that can be used to maintain stemness of MSCs during in vitro long term culture. Large quantity of MSCs thus grown can be used in regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and in treatment of inflammatory diseases.