An object of the present invention is to provide a cell culture device capable of reproducing, in vitro, a growth and proliferation environment of an anaerobic bacterium in a living body; a kit for cell culture; and a cell culture method. According to the present invention, there is provided a cell culture device including a plate having a concave portion for accommodating a culture medium, a cell accommodating container having a gas permeable membrane, a first member for holding the cell accommodating container, and a second member having a structure for regulating a gas concentration in an upper space of the cell accommodating container, in which, in a case where a cell sheet is formed on an upper surface of the gas permeable membrane, a space above the gas permeable membrane is in a sealed state in which gas does not pass through.

An object of the present invention is to obtain a thicker animal cell composition by a simple and less expensive method. Namely, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for culturing a thicker animal cell composition by eliminating the hypoxia associated with animal cell compositions, a method for producing an animal cell composition containing unicellular algae, and an animal cell composition.

The present invention provides a method for culturing an animal cell composition in a culture medium in the presence of unicellular algae and under exposure to light. According to the method of the present invention, oxygen can be continuously supplied in the culture medium, cell damage is alleviated, and a thicker cell composition can be obtained in the absence of a capillary network.

The present invention is concerned with a photosynthetic scaffold that delivers oxygen and its uses for tissue engineering and the treatment of ischemia.

Described is a method to transfer chromosomal DNA between two microbial species without genetic engineering or vectors. The strains resulting from this method are chimeric microbial hybrids that can express a combination of genotypes from both parents.

Disclosed herein is a Chlamydia-activated B cell (CAB) platform. Also disclosed is a method of enhancing a population of B cells, comprising exposing said B cells to Chlamydia spp. under conditions suitable to enhance the population of B cells, such that expansion and differentiation of said B cells takes place, and said B cells are exposed or crosslinked to an antigen. Also disclosed are methods of producing said CABs, and treating a subject in need thereof with said CABs.

Hepatitis C virus replication at extrahepatic sites has been suggested; however, complete viral replication has only been confirmed in hepatocytes. Here we show that human adipogenic DLK-1.sup.+ stem cells (hADSC) freshly isolated from HCV-infected individuals contained viral transcripts, replication intermediates and viral antigens in vivo, and viral transcripts increased in supernatants upon prolonged ex vivo culture. Furthermore, naive hADSC isolated from HCV () individuals support complete replication of clinical isolates in vitro, and the infection is donor-nonspecific for cells and cross-genotypic for viruses. Viral infection/replication is mediated through CD81, LDL-R, SR-B1, EGFR, Apolipoprotein E, occludin, claudin-1, NPC1L1 and diacylglycerol acetyltransferase-1, and can be inhibited by anti-viral drugs. In addition, the physical properties of hADSC-propagated viral particles resemble clinical isolates more than JFH1/HCVcc, and viruses propagated by in vitro infected hADSC are infectious to primary human hepatocytes. Therefore, hADSC are an in vivo HCV reservoir and represent a novel venue of clinical virus-host interaction. hADSC can also be exploited as a physiologically relevant primary cell culture system to propagate clinical isolates.

Described is a method to transfer chromosomal DNA between two microbial species without genetic engineering or vectors. The strains resulting from this method are chimeric microbial hybrids that can express a combination of genotypes from both parents.

Described is a method to transfer chromosomal DNA between two microbial species without genetic engineering or vectors. The strains resulting from this method are chimeric microbial hybrids that can express a combination of genotypes from both parents.

Numerous plant microbes, including the vascular-limited Candidatus spp.causal agents of citrus greening and potato zebra chip diseasesare non-culturable. The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments, to compositions, methods and systems for culturing such organisms. For example, the present disclosure relates to methods for culturing, propagating, and characterizing fastidious vascular-colonizing microbes using a hairy root system (e.g., in vitro, in planta). The present disclosure relates, in some embodiments, to methods for cultivating a fastidious plant microbe including: contacting a plant (e.g., a tomato plant, a potato plant, a citrus plant) colonized by a fastidious plant microbe (e.g., Xylella fastidiosa, Candidatus Liberibacter spp.) with a suspension of R. rhizogenes under conditions that permit induction of hairy roots colonized with the fastidious plant microbe, and propagating the colonized microbial hairy roots.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing pluripotent cells that are free of the risk of cellular canceration and that can be applied to regenerative medicine with a high degree of safety. The present invention provides a method for producing pluripotent cells from somatic cells comprising a step of bringing bacteria having fermentation ability or a component or secretory product thereof into contact with somatic cells.