Scaffold Stiffness and Lineage Commitment in Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22238001Keywords:
matrix stiffness; mechanotransduction; mesenchymal stromal cells; viscoelasticity; hydrogelsAbstract
Background: Matrix elasticity was reported in 2006 to direct mesenchymal lineage choice, and became one of the most cited
claims in tissue engineering.
Objective: To review how that claim has held up, what the objections are, and whether elastic modulus is the right variable.
Methods: Narrative review of the founding studies, the mechanotransduction literature, and the work that has qualified
them.
Findings: Reported windows do not agree between systems: osteogenesis at 25-40 kPa in two dimensions, 11-30 kPa in
three-dimensional alginate, and 17 kPa where stress relaxation is fast. Stiffness had no effect on polydimethylsiloxane across
four orders of magnitude, attributed to ligand tethering rather than elasticity. The same gel yields different moduli by
measurement method.
Conclusions: The direction of the effect reproduces; the mechanism does not. Modulus is best treated as a proxy rather than
the causal variable.
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