Design of cell niches for the regulation of stem cell fate in central nervous tissue regeneration

Cell therapy based on biomaterials and stem cells has made outstanding performance in central nervous tissue engineering. To stimulate stem cell behavior and obtain maximum functional recovery, researchers have paid great effort to elucidate the function of stem cell microenvironments. However, optimum scaffold conditions vary among biomaterials and cells. During the development in scaffolds, stem cells detect different aspects of scaffold signals and change their behavior accordingly, where as the synergism of scaffold biochemical and geometric properties are usually neglected by current reports. To provide a reference for scaffold designs based on specific types of biomaterials and stem cells, we performed this review to make discussion on the function of the geometric properties of scaffolds with reference to the corresponding biomaterials.