earticle

영어

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been known to affect to cell migration, proliferation, morphogenesis and apoptosis by degrading the extracellular matrix. In the previous studies, undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were successfully proliferated inside the extracellular matrix (ECM) analog-conjugated three-dimensional (3D) poly ethylene glycol (PEG)-based hydrogel. However, there is no report about MMP secretion in ESCs, which makes it difficult to understand and explain how ESCs enlarge space and proliferate inside 3D PEG-based hydrogel constructed by crosslinkers containing MMP-specific cleavage peptide sequence. Therefore, we investigated what types of MMPs are released from undifferentiated ESCs and how extracellular signals derived from various niche conditions affect MMP expression of ESCs at the transcriptional level. Results showed that undifferentiated ESCs expressed specifically MMP2 and MMP3 mRNAs. Transcriptional up-regulation of MMP2 was caused by the 3D scaffold, and activation of integrin inside the 3D scaffold upregulated MMP2 mRNAs synergistically. Moreover, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) on 2D matrix and 3D scaffold induced upregulation of MMP3 mRNAs, and activation of integrins through conjugation of extracellular matrix (ECM) analogs with 3D scaffold upregulated MMP3 mRNAs synergistically. These results suggest that successful proliferation of ESCs inside the 3D PEG-based hydrogel may be caused by increase of MMP2 and MMP3 expression resulting from 3D scaffold itself as well as activation of integrins inside the 3D PEG-based scaffold.