Carbohydrate engineered cells for regenerative medicine

Carbohydrates are integral components of the stem cell niche on several levels; proteoglycans are a major constituent of the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding a cell, glycosoaminoglycans (GAGs) help link cells to the ECM and the neighboring cells, and small but informationally-rich oligosaccharides provide a “sugar code” that identifies each cell and provides it with unique functions. This article samples roles that glycans play in development and then describes how metabolic glycoengineering — a technique where monosaccharide analogs are introduced into the metabolic pathways of a cell and are biosynthetically incorporated into the glycocalyx — is overcoming many of the long-standing barriers to manipulating carbohydrates in living cells and tissues and is becoming an intriguing new tool for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.