Mechanical stimulation of mesenchymal stem cells for tissue engineering.

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a rapidly growing field that utilizes cell/scaffolds constructs with chemical signaling molecules as potential therapeutic products for tissue regeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) provide excellent novel strategies for tissue engineering application. Recently, it has been recognized that understanding mechanical stimulation is an important key to the development of efficient and controllable methods as well as chemical signaling for differentiation of MSCs and tissue engineering application. Especially, a number of studies indicated that the mechanical stimuli can enhance the synergy effects for differentiation of MSCs and tissue formation or regeneration. In this review, we introduced the various mechanical stimuli techniques, the effects of mechanical stimuli to MSCs, and tissue engineering applications. Furthermore, we discussed the further research directions of MSCs and mechanical stimuli based on this review for tissue engineering.