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Abstract Preclinical animal studies are essential to the development of safe and effective stem cell therapies. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a powerful tool in animal studies that enables the real‐time longitudinal monitoring of stem cells in vivo to elucidate their regenerative properties. This review describes the application of BLI in preclinical stem cell research to address critical challenges in producing successful stem cell therapeutics. These challenges include stem cell survival, proliferation, homing, stress response, and differentiation. The applications presented here utilize bioluminescence to investigate a variety of stem and progenitor cells in several different in vivo models of disease and implantation. An overview of luciferase reporters is provided, along with the advantages and disadvantages of BLI. Additionally, BLI is compared to other preclinical imaging modalities and potential future applications of this technology are discussed in emerging areas of stem cell research.
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Functional nanoarrays for investigating stem cell fate and function
Stem cells show excellent potential in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine based on their excellent capability to not only self-renew but also differentiate into a specialized cell type of interest. However, the lack of a non-destructive monitoring system makes it challenging to identify and characterize differentiated cells before their transplantation without compromising cell viability. Thus, the development of a non-destructive monitoring method for analyzing cell function is highly desired and can significantly benefit stem cell-based therapies. Recently, nanomaterial-based scaffolds ( e.g. , nanoarrays) have made possible considerable advances in controlling the differentiation of stem cells and characterization of the differentiation status sensitively in real time. This review provides a selective overview of the recent progress in the synthesis methods of nanoarrays and their applications in controlling stem cell fate and monitoring live cell functions electrochemically. We believe that the topics discussed in this review can provide brief and concise guidelines for the development of novel nanoarrays and promote the interest in live cell study applications. A method which can not only control but also monitor stem cell fate and function will be a promising technology that can accelerate stem cell therapies.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1803517
- PAR ID:
- 10168030
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nanoscale
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 17
- ISSN:
- 2040-3364
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 9306 to 9326
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c9nr10963c
