Stem cells are a powerful resource for many applications including regenerative medicine, patient-specific disease modeling, and toxicology screening. However, eliciting the desired behavior from stem cells, such as expansion in a naïve state or differentiation into a particular mature lineage, remains challenging. Drawing inspiration from the native stem cell niche, hydrogel platforms have been developed to regulate stem cell fate by controlling microenvironmental parameters including matrix mechanics, degradability, cell-adhesive ligand presentation, local microstructure, and cell-cell interactions. We survey techniques for modulating hydrogel properties and review the effects of microenvironmental parameters on maintaining stemness and controlling differentiation for a variety of stem cell types. Looking forward, we envision future hydrogel designs spanning a spectrum of complexity, ranging from simple, fully defined materials for industrial expansion of stem cells to complex, biomimetic systems for organotypic cell culture models.

中文翻译：

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工程水凝胶微环境概述干细胞的生态位。

干细胞是许多应用的强大资源，包括再生医学，针对特定患者的疾病建模和毒理学筛查。然而，从干细胞引发所需的行为，例如以幼稚状态扩增或分化成特定的成熟谱系，仍然具有挑战性。从天然干细胞生态位中汲取灵感，开发了水凝胶平台，通过控制微环境参数来调节干细胞命运，这些参数包括基质力学，可降解性，细胞粘附配体呈现，局部微结构和细胞间相互作用。我们调查了调节水凝胶特性的技术，并审查了微环境参数对维持干性和控制多种干细胞类型分化的影响。期待，