A three-dimensional cell growth containment article is described, which includes a molded body channelized by removal of sacrificial channelizing element(s) therefrom, so that the molded body contains one or more channel(s) therein, with a matrix material in at least one of such channel(s) that is supportive of three-dimensional cell growth in the matrix material. A method for making such articles is also described, in which a molded body is formed with one or more sacrificial channelizing element(s) therein, following which the sacrificial channelizing element(s) are removed. The three-dimensional cell growth containment articles of the present disclosure may be utilized in any applications in which there exists a need to reproducibly generate three-dimensional cellular structures, e.g., islet transplantation for diabetes treatment, transplantation of hormone secreting cells, cellular scaffolds for wound healing, and generation of tissue engineering structures to regain structural usefulness for orthopedic applications.

According to the present invention, there are provided a chamber for transplantation, as a planar chamber for transplantation which has a structure in which membranes for immunoisolation face each other, and which is capable of stably enclosing a biological constituent, including a membrane for immunoisolation at a boundary between an inside and an outside of the chamber for transplantation, in which the membranes for immunoisolation which face each other have joint portions that are joined to each other, an interior space includes a point at a distance of 10 mm or longer from any position of the joint portion, and the membrane for immunoisolation has flexibility that allows a distance of 1 mm to 13 mm as the following distance: in a case where a portion of 10 mm from a side surface of one short side of a 10 mm×30 mm rectangular test piece of the membrane for immunoisolation is vertically sandwiched between flat plates, and the flat plates are placed horizontally, a distance between a horizontal plane including a center plane in a thickness direction of the sandwiched portion of the membrane for immunoisolation, and a part, which is farthest from the horizontal plane, of a residual 20 mm-portion projecting from the flat plate; and a device for transplantation including the chamber for transplantation enclosing a biological constituent therein.

The invention provides a substrate for producing cell aggregates provided with a spot(s) comprising a copolymer containing recurring units derived from monomers represented by the following formulae (I) and (II):

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wherein U.sup.a1, U.sup.a2, R.sup.a1, R.sup.a2 and R.sup.b are as defined herein, on a substrate having an ability to inhibit adhesion of cells, wherein a completion time of forming cell aggregates after seeding cells is within 20 hours.

A cell treatment agent containing alginate sulfate as an active ingredient, and a set reagent for activating suspended or dormant cells, which is a combination reagent of the cell treatment agent and an activator containing polyvalent cations are provided.

The present invention relates to a tissue adhesion agent having improved bio-tissue adhesiveness and bonding force by utilizing an adhesion-related gene. More specifically, a cartilage tissue adhesion composition prepared from fetal cartilage tissue-derived stem cells in which VCAN, CTGF, or EXT1 is inserted and expressed in an upregulated manner was found to show a remarkably superb adhesive force, compared to that prepared from fetal cartilage tissue-derived stem cells in which none of the genes are inserted. Accordingly, the cell composition in which the expression of VCAN, CTGF, or EXT1 is upregulated can be prepared into a tissue adhesion composition having improved bio-tissue adhesiveness and bonding force and VCAN, CTGF, or EXT1 can be provided as an additive composition for a tissue adhesion agent.

The present invention provides improved methods and media for culturing stem cells and propagating organoids. In particular, the methods provide improved methods for culturing normal and tumour or cancer stem cells and their propagation into organoids. Specifically provided are suspension methods with particular utility for scalable organoid expansion, biobanking, experimental manipulation, miniaturization and imaging based high-throughput drug screening.

Systems, devices, and methods for treating a nerve injury in a patient are provided. The system includes an extracellular matrix, a neutralizing element, and a reconstituting element. The extracellular matrix is configured to promote and/or sustain the growth of tissue and/or associated tissue properties proximate the nerve injury.

An organ implant, such as a heart implant, including a support structure having a plurality of pores and defining passages configured for the growth of blood vessels; and stem cells from at least one soft tissue source of a patient deposited into the pores of the support structure is described. The implant is configured to repair a portion of an organ of the patient.

A method for coating a solid surface with a recombinant spider silk protein capable of forming polymeric, solid structures is provided. The method is comprising the following steps: exposing the solid surface to an aqueous solution of the recombinant spider silk protein and thereby forming a surface layer of the recombinant spider silk protein adsorbed on the solid surface without formation of covalent bonds between the recombinant spider silk protein and the solid surface; and further exposing the surface layer of the solid surface to an aqueous solution of the recombinant spider silk protein and thereby forming an assembled silk structure layer of the recombinant spider silk protein on the surface layer; wherein the method does not include drying-in of spider silk protein.

Device, and methods of using or making the device, for engineering cells in vitro are disclosed. In some aspects, a cell culture device comprises at least one glass or polymer surface configured for incubating cells in a culture medium; a charged molecule electrostatically bound to the surface; and a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) electrostatically bound to the charged molecule, the PEM comprising one or more bi-layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, and the PEM having a sufficient thickness to permit release of the charged molecule into the culture medium in a controlled released manner.