Masahiro Kino‐oka

To evaluate the degree of cellular dedifferentiation, subculture of chondrocytes was conducted on a surface coated with collagen type I at a density of 1.05 mg/cm(2). In the primary culture, most of the cells were round in shape on the collagen (CL) substrate, whereas fibroblastic and partially extended cells were dominant on the polystyrene plastic (PS) substrate. Stereoscopic observation revealed that the round-shaped cells on the CL substrate were hemispherical with nebulous and punctuated F-

A novel bioreactor system was designed to perform a series of batchwise cultures of anchorage-dependent cells by means of automated operations of medium change and passage for cell transfer. The experimental data on contamination frequency ensured the biological cleanliness in the bioreactor system, which facilitated the operations in a closed environment, as compared with that in flask culture system with manual handlings. In addition, the tools for growth prediction (based on growth kinetics)

An intelligent culture system accompanied by automated operations (liquid transfer and cell passage) was newly developed to perform serial cultures of human skeletal muscle myoblasts. To realize a desired performance, a laminin-coated surface was applied to myoblast expansion in a culture flask. It was found that the laminin coating enhanced the overall growth ability attributable not to shortening of the doubling time but to prevention of differentiation toward myotube formation, compared with

In the culture of red beet hairy root, the red pigment (mainly betanin) was released from the cells into medium when the cells were subjected to the culture condition under O2 starvation by keeping the concentration of dissolved oxygen in medium at 0 ppm. The amount of released pigment increased with increasing time length of O2 starvation during 26 h. However, an O2 starvation time of less than 16 h was employed to shorten the lag time for cell growth resumption after this starvation treatment.

Human keratinocytes were cultured in serum-free medium for the purpose of on-line cell growth monitoring by image analysis. The validity of a process using a newly developed video microscopy system with image analysis for growth-rate monitoring in real time was verified by the measurement of the degree of confluence of keratinocytes in T-flasks and Petriperm dishes. The growth rate of keratinocytes was calculated subsequently from the linear relationship between average degree of confluence and

Cell sheet engineering, a scaffold-free tissue fabrication technique, has proven to be an important breakthrough technology in regenerative medicine. Over the past two decades, the field has developed rapidly in terms of investigating fabrication techniques and multipurpose applications in regenerative medicine and biological research. This review highlights the most important achievements in cell sheet engineering to date. We first discuss cell sheet harvesting systems, which have been introduc

In recent years, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted attention as a new therapeutic tool. In Europe, the United States, and Asia, there is an accelerating trend of moving beyond basic research on clinical trials. However, treatment using EVs is still in the research and development stage, and the general public has insufficient awareness and understanding of the risks involved in ensuring safety and efficacy, the status of laws and regulations, and global research and development trends