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Abstract
Porcine derived Small Intestinal Submucosa (SIS) is one of the most widely used biomaterials available for tissue engineering. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) could potentially provide an unlimited source of cells suitable for combination with biomaterials for use in regenerative medicine applications. To explore the nature of hESC/SIS interaction, undifferentiated hESCs were cultured in the presence of the SIS matrix, and cellular behavior was characterized using comparative expression profiling of 44 early differentiation genes using quantitative RT-PCR. Results indicate that the SIS matrix is able to influence the differentiation of hESCs towards a vascular endothelial related phenotype. The application of hESCs with the SIS matrix provides a mechanism by which an ESC derived endothelial biomatrix may be produced and may offer support in the development of an engineered artificial tissue with endothelial-like properties for therapeutic purposes.