Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation and usage for biotechnology applications: tissue engineering and food manufacturing

Recent advances in the field of stem cell research now enable their utilisation for biotechnology applications in regenerative medicine and food tech. The first use of stem cells as biomedical devices employed a combination of cells and scaffold to restore, improve, or replace damaged tissues and to grow new viable tissue for replacement organs. This approach has also been adopted to replace meat production in the food industry. Mesenchymal stem cells are the source material used to induce cells to differentiate into the desired lineage. These technologies require mass propagation and rely on supplying the regulatory factors that direct differentiation. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into fibroblastic and skeletal cells; fibroblastic/chondrogenic/osteogenic/myogenic and adipogenic lineages. Each differentiation fate requires specific key molecular regulators and appropriate activation conditions. Stem cell commitment determination involves a concerted effort of coordinated activation and silencing of lineage-specific genes. Transcription factors which bind gene promoters and chromatin-remodelling proteins are key players in the control process of lineage commitment and differentiation from embryogenesis through adulthood. Consequently, a major research challenge is to characterise such molecular pathways that coordinate lineage-specific differentiation and function. Revealing the mechanisms of action and the main factors will provide the knowledge necessary to control activation and regulation to achieve a specific lineage. Growing cells on a scaffold is a support system that mimics natural tissue and transduces the appropriate signals of the tissue niche for appropriate cellular function. The outcome of such research will deepen the understanding of cell differentiation to promote and advance the biotech, allowing the cell expansion required for their usage in therapy or the development of food tech.