A gastrointestinal organoid provides a fully functional complex GIO consisting of epithelial, endothelial, and mesenchymal cells with the microbiome of a natural human gastrointestinal system and exhibiting contractile behavior, useful for the rapid and sensitive screening of pathogens, toxins, drugs, environmental factors, and other compounds or diseases.

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for tissue engineered grafts. The systems and methods can be used to make tissue engineered vascular grafts. The systems and methods use bioink deposited on a material having specified properties and matured under specified conditions to create the tissue engineered grafts having biomechanical properties tailored to a particular tissue.

The present invention discloses an extracellular matrix comprising a modified polysaccharide consisting of repeating disaccharide units whereby in at least 11% of the disaccharide units one primary alcohol group is oxidized into a carboxylic acid.

Animal cells, notably adult fibroblasts, are advantageously reprogrammed in direct lineage reprogramming methods using defined factors to produce proliferative and multipotent induced cardiac progenitor cells (iCPC). The iCPC thus produced can be differentiated under suitable differentiation conditions to cardiac lineage cells including cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells, as evidenced by expression of lineage specific markers. Sets of factors effective in combination to reprogram the fibroblasts can include a set that includes some or all of 5 factors (Mesp1, Baf60c, Nkx2.5, Gata4, Tbx5), a set that includes some or all of 11 factors (Mesp1, Mesp2, Gata4, Gata6, Baf60c, SRF, Isl1, Nkx2.5, Irx4, Tbx5, Tbx20), a set that includes some or all of 18 factors (T, Mesp1, Mesp2, Tbx5, Tbx20, Isl1, Gata4, Gata6, Irx4, Nkx2.5, Hand1, Hand2, Tbx20, Tbx18, Tip60, Baf60c, SRF, Hey2), and a set that includes some or all of 22 factors (T, Mesp1, Mesp2, Tbx5, Tbx20, Isl1, Gata4, Gata6, Irx4, Nkx2.5, Hand1, Hand2, Tbx20, Tbx18, Tip60, Baf60c, SRF, Hey2, Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, L-myc).

The present invention relates to a method for isolating stem cells comprising preparing a cell suspension from uterine cervix tissue, to the stem cells isolated by said method, and to the conditioned medium obtained from the culture of said stem cells. The invention also encompasses the use of said stem cells or conditioned medium for treating or preventing cancer, precancerous lesions, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, chronic pathologies or infectious diseases, diseases associated to tissue loss, or for use in diagnostic, prognostic or treatment of fertility disorders, as well as for cosmetic treatment.

The present invention relates generally to methods and compositions useful for therapeutic vascular tissue engineering. In particular, the present invention provides methods for generating substantially pure populations of vasculogenic cells from human mesenchymal progenitors, and methods and compositions for clinical applications in the field of regenerative medicine.

Described herein are cells, cell culture methods, and cell culture media compositions useful for producing and maintaining iPSC-derived cell lines that are of higher purity and maintain cell type integrity better than current iPSC-derived cell lines. Also disclosed are methods of using the described cells and media, such as therapeutic methods of use for the described cells. The described cells include iPSC-derived mesodermal precursor cells (MPC), which itself may differentiate into at least four different cell types. When cultured under appropriate conditions, the mesodermal precursor cells can be used to produce hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), smooth muscle cells (SMC), or unlimited functional endothelial cells (UFEC). One characteristic that makes the described cells desirable is that they can be maintained in culture for a number of days, or passages, without changing phenotype through differentiation.

The present invention refers to a model for in-vitro simulation of the behaviour of dysfunctional human vessels, such as for example vessels affected by aneurysm, stenosis or sclerosis plaques, as an instrument for testing medical devices and drugs with the aim of verifying effectiveness and safety thereof prior to use thereof on humans. Specifically, the present invention refers to an in vitro model of a substantially tubular-shaped vascular structure having dysfunctional anatomical and physiological characteristics simulating the same vascular structure of a healthy subject whose vascular structure has been damaged or deformed or deteriorated due to a damage selected from among the group comprising or, alternatively, consisting of aneurysm, stenosis, sclerosis plaques, forms of tumours or cardiomyopathies having the characteristics as claimed in the attached claims. Furthermore, the present invention also refers to a reliable and reproducible industrialisation process for eliminating air bubbles for producing an engineered vascular tissue for the in vitro test of medicinal products for human use and veterinarian products for animal use.

An improved cryopreservation process and substances can involve a cellular collection (1) in a cryopreservation fluid (4) that has been conditioned or treated (7) to enhance the cryopreservation process by adding (18) energy (19) such as in the surface energy of a substance in the cryopreservation fluid (4) prior to reducing energy for that same cryopreservation media for freezing. This can offer enhanced-post-cryogenic viability of the cryopreserved structures or a more optimum cooling curve (22) for a specific cell type.

A method is disclosed for coating and patterning hydrogels in order to modify surface properties. The method exploits the water content of the hydrogel and the hydrophobicity of the reaction solvent to create a thin oxide adhesion layer on the hydrogel surface. This oxide adhesion layer enables rapid transformation of the hydrophilic, cell non-adhesive hydrogel into either a highly hydrophobic or a cell-adhesive hydrogel by reaction with an alkylphosphonic acid or an α,ω-diphosphonoalkane, respectively. Also disclosed are coated, patterned hydrogels and constructs comprising the coated, patterned hydrogels.