The present invention relates to a method for evaluating the activity level of mesenchymal stem cells, and a method for culturing mesenchymal stem cells using the evaluation method in the field of culturing mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative medicine, and further, a method for producing a therapeutic agent for liver dysfunction and a therapeutic agent for liver dysfunction. This method for evaluating mesenchymal stem cell activity according to the present invention comprises an assay step for assaying the amount of adenylate kinase 4 (AK4) in the mesenchymal stem cells; and a determination step for determining the activity level of the mesenchymal stem cells from the assayed amount of adenylate kinase 4.

In this method, the activity level of mesenchymal stem cells can be evaluated from the assayed amount of AK4, for instance, if the mitochondrial activity level of mesenchymal stem cells is high, the mesenchymal stem cells can be evaluated as ideal for use as a therapeutic agent, while if mitochondrial activity of the mesenchymal stem cells is low and aging does not proceed, the mesenchymal stem cells can be evaluated as suitable for subculture.

A method of making a multi-layer patterned cell assembly is provided. A cell suspension liquid solution containing cells is loaded into a liquid-carrier chamber. The cells in the cell suspension liquid solution are let to settle down to the bottom of the chamber. Once the cells in the cell suspension liquid solution have gravitationally settled down to the bottom of the chamber, a hydrodynamic drag force is applied by using a vibration generator with a frequency and acceleration to the cells at the bottom of the chamber. The frequency and acceleration are designed to drag the settled cells into a three-dimensional pattern to form a multi-layer three-dimensional patterned cell assembly. The formed multi-layer three- dimensional patterned cell assembly can be transferred from the liquid-carrier chamber to an incubator to form a tissue culture. The bioengineered construct can be implanted for tissue engineering or other medical applications.

The present invention provides three-dimensional microenvironment niches prepared from biomaterial compositions that supports growth and self renewal of stem cells. The invention also provides methods for inducing pluripotency in a somatic cell using chemical compounds, as well as methods for screening for compounds that can induce pluripotency in a somatic cell.

The present invention relates to iPSC produced from fibroblast obtained from a subject affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder entailing intellectual disability (ID) and/or a disorder belonging to the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or Schizophrenia (SZ) and uses thereof. The present invention also relates to a cortical neural progenitor cell or a terminally differentiated cortical glutamatergic or gabaergic neuronal cell or a neural crest stem cell line, a mesenchymal stem cell line produced from the iPSC or iPSC line. The invention also relates to method for identifying a compound for the treatment and/or prevention of a neurodevelopmental disorder entailing intellectual disability (ID) and/or a disorder belonging to the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or Schizophrenia (SZ) and to a LSD1 inhibitor or a HDAC2 inhibitor for use in the treatment of such disorders.

Provided are a method and a composition for preventing or treating atopic dermatitis through administration of monoclonal stem cells and a method for screening atopic dermatitis patients suitable for administration of monoclonal stem cells and predicting prognosis of patients. According to the method for the subfractionation culture and proliferation of stem cells of the disclosure, large quantities of desired monoclonal mesenchymal stem cells can be obtained in a short period of time through rapid proliferation of monoclonal mesenchymal stem cells. In addition, the monoclonal mesenchymal stem cells thus obtained can be administered to atopic dermatitis patients according to a prescribed administration cycle, guidelines, and dose to effectively ameliorate atopy symptoms in the patients. Moreover, by using a marker to identify patient groups particularly suitable for the treatment and selectively administering the monoclonal mesenchymal stem cells to the patient groups, an excellent therapeutic effect for atopic dermatitis can be achieved.

The present disclosure generally relates to compositions and methods for treating immune system imbalance or for treating immune system associated diseases.

The invention relates to a new protein hydrogel created on the basis of low-concentrated components: reagents A and B, the method of hydrogel preparation and its use.

The present disclosure provides, in some embodiments, in vitro brain (miBRAIN) having functional and structural properties of in vivo brain as well as methods of identifying compounds capable of influencing brain function.

Disclosed is a method for in vitro reprogramming of fibroblasts into Sertoli cells and an application thereof. The method includes the following steps: introducing a fluorescent protein reporter system specifically expressed in the Sertoli cells into the fibroblasts; followed by introducing a substance that increases the expression level and/or activity of the NR5A1 protein; adding G418 and culturing for 3-7 d; discarding the liquid phase, adding a medium for culturing fibroblasts and continuing culturing for 3-7 d; and isolating the Sertoli cells from the culture system. Experiments showed that cells prepared by the method fully acquire the characteristics of Sertoli cells, such as attracting endothelial cells, forming lipid droplets, interacting with germ cells, inhibiting lymphocyte growth and interleukin production and having immune privilege. The disclosure has application value in the fields of infertility treatment, allogeneic transplantation, and cell therapy.

A method is disclosed for acquiring a single, in-focus two-dimensional projection image of a live, three-dimensional cell culture sample, with a fluorescence microscope. One or more long-exposure “Z-sweep” images are obtained, i.e. via a single or series of continuous acquisitions, while moving the Z-focal plane of a camera through the sample, to produce one or more two-dimensional images of fluorescence intensity integrated over the Z-dimension. The acquisition method is much faster than a Z-stack method, which enables higher throughput and reduces the risk of exposing the sample to too much fluorescent light. The long-exposure Z-sweep image(s) is then input into a neural network which has been trained to produce a high-quality (in-focus) two-dimensional projection image of the sample. With these high-quality projection images, biologically relevant analysis metrics can be obtained to describe the fluorescence signal using standard image analysis techniques, such as fluorescence object count and other fluorescence intensity metrics (e.g., mean intensity, texture, etc.).