The purpose of the present invention is to provide a chondrocyte culture with high tissue regeneration ability. This purpose is met by a method involving a step in which a cell population separated from cartilage tissue is cultured on a thermoreversible polymer.

Disclosed herein is a composite material and a skin test platform material in a form of a membrane, comprising silk fibroin and a crosslinking agent, wherein from 4.7 to 14 wt % of the total dry weight of the material is derived from the crosslinking agent. In one embodiment, the crosslinking agent is polyethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether. The membrane has a surface that may be shaped to mimic human skin structures. Also disclosed herein are methods of forming a composite material, a skin test platform material, and determining a property of a test composition such as an anti-bacterial cleansing composition, a skin care product and a perfume.

Methods for cryopreservation of biological samples are provided. The biological samples are sub-millimeter or millimeter scale biological materials. The biological samples are pancreatic islets and stem cell derived islets. Methods for cryopreservation of islets using cryomesh and multi-step loading and unloading of CPA cocktails are provided. Methods disclosed result in vitrified and rewarmed islets with high recovery, viability and functionality. Methods are scalable for high throughput production of large amounts of vitrified and rewarmed islets for use in therapeutic transplantation.

The invention relates to a method for the formation of renal tubules by embedding individual renal cells into a synthetic hydrogel, which is based on polyethylene glycol as a component, and the culturing of the cells until tubule structures are formed. The culturing can be continued until the obtained tubule structures correspond in terms of size, structure, morphology and functionality to adult human renal tubules or are at least similar thereto.

A pharmaceutical composition for treating diseases related to inflammation or injury such as ARDS, comprising: (a) an active material derived from human somatic cells, the active ingredient being an extracellular vesicle produced by human somatic cells; and (b) a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The somatic cells are selected from human tissue, bone marrow and/or blood-derived stem cells, etc. The dosage form of the pharmaceutical composition is selected from an atomized inhalation agent, eye drops and nasal drops. The pharmaceutical composition has storage stability and high dispersibility superior to those of a living cell formulation. A method for preparing an extracellular vesicle, comprising steps of culturing human somatic cells, removing cells from a culture system, mixing a culture solution with polyethylene glycol to form an extracellular vesicle modified by PEG, centrifuging, resuspending, etc. The formulation of the extracellular vesicle can be used for preparing a medicament for preventing and/or treating inflammations or injuries.

The present invention relates to a method for inducing differentiation, into chondrocytes, of cord blood mononuclear cell-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. In a case where a chondrogenic pellet produced by the method of the present invention is transplanted into a cartilage damage area in vivo, regeneration of cartilage can be effectively exhibited by differentiated chondrocytes. In such a case, an effective cartilage regeneration capacity can be exhibited as compared with a case where chondrocytes produced by differentiation induction with the addition of a recombinant growth factor are transplanted. Thus, the present invention can be usefully used for tissue engineering therapies.

The present invention provides compositions and methods for transferring phospholipids and other molecules between the leaflets of a cell membrane. The compositions comprise at least one nucleic acid or compound having a hydrophilic region, where the composition is able to form a nanostructure that forms a toroidal pore in a lipid membrane. The nucleic acid or hydrophilic region-containing compound further contains an attached molecule capable of inserting the nanostructure into the lipid membrane. The invention also provides methods for scrambling lipids and other molecules in a cell membrane, which can be used to alter the function of a selected cell or to facilitate the death of the cell. The scrambling activity of synthetic scramblases described herein outperforms previously known enzymatically active DNA nanostructures and naturally occurring scramblases, in some cases by several orders of magnitude.

The present invention discloses a serum-free medium and a culture method suitable for culturing human cells. The present invention provides a method of culturing human cells, the method comprising bringing the human cells into contact with polyalkylene glycol modified with a copolymer containing a polyvinylcaprolactam block and a polyvinylacetate block.

A medium for stem cells according to the present invention contains at least one of carboxymethyl cellulose and polyvinylpyrrolidone as a water-soluble polymer. The content of carboxymethyl cellulose in the medium is preferably such that the final concentration thereof is 0.001 μg/mL to 1 mg/mL. The content of polyvinylpyrrolidone in the medium is preferably such that the final concentration thereof is 0.05 μg/mL to 2 mg/mL.

The present invention discloses a hydrogel comprising a functionalized PEG multi-arm star polymer covalently combined with maleimide-functionalized low molecular weight heparin, further comprising at least one positively charged immune molecule, a method for producing this hydrogel and its use in T cell culture for immunotherapies. Furthermore, the invention relates to a bioink and its use in 3D-(bio)-printing.