This chapter gives an overview of the new micro- and nano-technologies
designed to monitor SC differentiation in the context of their potential applications in
disease modeling, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, as well as drug screening
and toxicology. Representative examples of such applications are presented and the
crucial importance of the differentiation processes for the safety of SC therapies is
discussed. The roles of the main factors that influence SC differentiation are briefly
summarized and the vital need to control and monitor the differentiation process using
non-invasive methods is emphasized. The basic principles of new micro- and nanotechnologies
for monitoring SC differentiation are presented, with special focus on the
use of acoustic vibrational fields to characterize SC. Literature studies on SC
differentiation, involving methods based on Impedance Sensing (IS), Surface Enhanced
Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy,
Microelectrode Array (MEA) sensors, Light-addressable Potentiometric Sensors
(LAPS), Field-effect Transistors (FET), Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Quartz
Crystal Microbalance (QCM), are briefly described.
Keywords: Differentiation, Monitoring, Nano and microtechnology, Stem cells.
