A hydrogel capsule comprising a stem cell core that has been induced to differentiate into a hematopoietic lineage cell, and methods for the production of hematopoietic lineage cells from stem cells encapsulated in a hydrogel.

A non-degradable device for use in controlled feeding of mammalian cell cultures including by way of example cultures of stem cells such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Methods of making and using the device are also disclosed.

The invention relates to a membrane which can be used for cultivating adherent or suspension cells, in particular adherent cells, wherein said membrane allows for the adhesion and proliferation of the cells due to the irradiation of the wet or dry membrane with gamma- or beta-rays or an electron beam in a dose of from 12.5 to 175 kGy in the presence of oxygen. The resulting membrane may be used without any pre-treatment with surface-modifying substances. The invention further relates to a method for preparing said irradiated membrane which can be used for the cultivation of cells, in particular adherent cells, and to methods of using such a membrane for the cultivation of cells, in particular adherent cells.

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 microtopography system for modulating one or more cellular processes on a surface is described. The microtopography system comprising: a repeated microtopographic pattern, said microtopographic pattern comprising: an array of repeated micropillars applied to a surface of a product, said micropillars being formed of surface structures between 1-100 μm in height, and 1-50 μm in width. The microtopographic pattern acts to modulate one or more cellular processes on the surface.

A biological tissue forming device that ensures a cell-cell interaction and an exchange of liquid components between cell layers of a formed biological tissues with high efficiency can be provided. A biological tissue forming device for forming a biological tissue having a plurality of cell layers formed of adherent cells has both surfaces on which culture regions of the adherent cells are disposed, and includes a culture membrane arranged between the plurality of cell layers after the adherent cells are cultured and a plurality of flow passages divided by the culture membrane. The culture membrane is formed of a readily-soluble material.

A hydrophilic fluororesin tube includes a tube wall that contains a fluororesin fiber deposited to form a nonwoven fabric, and satisfies the following requirement (1): requirement (1); the tube wall of the hydrophilic fluororesin tube demonstrating an average transmittance, when immersed in water at 25° C. for 1 minute, of 40% or larger at 400 to 700 nm wavelength.

A method of vascularising a cell aggregate on a microfluidic device, microfluidic cell culture devices comprising perfusable vascular networks and kits and assays using the microfluidic cell culture devices are described. The microfluidic devices comprise one or more capillary pressure barriers allowing for formation of an extracellular matrix gel within a confined area of the network, in which cells can be cultured for different uses.

The present invention provides methods and systems which accommodate 3-dimensional adipocyte expansion to produce, e.g., mature adipocytes and synthetic adipose tissue with cellular properties of mature adult organisms, including cell size and cytoarchitecture, and the use of such methods and systems for, e.g., in vitro drug screening and/or toxicity assays, disease modeling, and therapeutic applications.

Described is a crosslinked hydrogel for muscle stem cell culture and a preparation method and use thereof. The preparation method includes: dissolving collagen to prepare a solution and adding alginate and heparan sulfate proteoglycan and uniformly mixing with the collagen solution; adding ε-PL and TGase into the solution, uniformly stirring, and putting a slurry into a mold for crosslinking to obtain the hydrogel. The hydrogel is prepared by linking the collagen, the polylysine, and the heparan sulfate proteoglycan using the TGase to form covalent crosslinking, and forming a compact three-dimensional “egg box” network structure through a physical electrostatic interaction between the polylysine and the alginate.