Effect of growth factors and bioactive substances on mesenchymal stem cell differentiation.

Mesenchymal stem cells are a population of multipotent cells, which have the ability to restore damaged tissues derived from mesoderm. Under the influence of wide range of growth factors, hormones and other bioactive molecules they can differentiate for example into chondrocytes, osteocytes, adipocytes, myocytes or insulin producing cells. The differentiation is induced even by contacts with neighboring cells or with extracellular matrix. Tissue engineering often uses especially growth factors. Growth factors act through specific surface receptors, which mediate cell-to-cell and cell-to-extracelular matrix communication and influence many cellular processes such as growth, proliferation, differentiation and others. Due to their specific impact growth factors are used individually or in combinations in tissue engineering applications. Substances stimulating cells to proliferate and differentiate can be added right to the culture medium, when cultivated in vitro, or can be loaded into a scaffold onto which cells are later seeded. The determination of exact growth factors combinations and concentrations influence on MSCs differentiation would enable more efficient use of MSCs in regenerative medicine. The aim of this thesis is to summarise present knowledge about the effect of growth factors and other..