Cell Sheet Engineering

Cell Sheet

Using CellSeed's UpCell® temperature-responsive cell cultureware, cells that have been grown to confluency can be detached from the surface of the cultureware as a single sheet. These sheet-like clusters of cells are called "cell sheets". With conventional techniques, cultured cell clusters were disassociated into their constituent cells when harvested because a proteolytic enzyme was used to detach them from the cultureware surface. To address this problem, Professor Teruo Okano of Tokyo Women's Medical University (and External Executive Director of CellSeed) developed temperature-responsive cell cultureware, an innovative concept that is entirely different from the existing technology, a method for culturing cells based on this technology, and pioneered the new field of cell sheet engineering. CellSeed has aggressively tackled the commercialization of this labware.

Characteristics of cell sheet

UpCell® cultureware features a nano-bio interface surface, which consists of a temperature-responsive polymer immobilized to the surface at nanometer-scale thickness. Cultured cells can be harvested from this surface by simply altering the temperature and without the use of enzymes. As the cultured cells are not affected by enzymatic treatment, the proteins linking them are not destroyed and the cells can be collected as a single sheet. As well, since the adhesive proteins formed between the cultureware surface and cultured cells are preserved intact, the cell sheets graft readily to biological tissue, and it is also possible to bond multiple cell sheets together by stacking. A further major advantage is that the cell's natural functions are preserved, unaffected by enzymatic treatment.

Cultured cells can be collected by mere reduction of temperature.

Cell sheet engineering as a platform technology for regenerative medicine

Cell sheets can be prepared using cells from various biological tissues and organs*. These can be used alone as tissue for transplantation, or used in combination with sheets composed of other cells, and can be used either singly, or in stacked arrangements of multiple cell sheets. The technology that utilizes such cell sheets is known as cell sheet engineering.

*Cells can be cultured using conventional techniques. However, there may be some circumstances in which certain types of cultured cells cannot be detached under specific incubation conditions. Please contact us for further information on culture systems.

Living cell sheet harvestiong by UpCell®

Deployment of cell sheet engineering in selected fields of regenerative medicine

In collaboration with a number of university medical schools, we are engaged in research and development of various regenerative medicine products that utilize cell sheet engineering. The applications include regeneration of corneal epithelial tissue using sheets of cells obtained from the oral mucosa, regeneration of myocardial tissue using sheets of skeletal muscle myoblasts, regeneration of esophageal epithelium tissue using sheets of cells obtained from the oral mucosa, regeneration of periodontal tissue using periodontal ligament cell sheets, and regeneration of cartilage tissue.

Cardiac multiple layered cell sheet

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