Disclosed is a method for producing kidney organoids including steps of: (1) differentiating stem cells into metanephric mesenchyme cells; (2) forming metanephric mesenchyme cell aggregates by culturing the metanephric mesenchyme cells; and (3) differentiating the metanephric mesenchyme cell aggregates into kidney organoids.

Embodiments described herein relate generally to a three-dimensional ex vivo skeletal muscle tissue comprising a hydrogel and a plurality of cells that includes skeletal muscle cells, at least a portion of the cells being encapsulated inside the hydrogel. In some embodiments, the skeletal muscle tissue is characterized by one or more contractions in response to an electrical and/or chemical stimulation.

The invention relates to a cell sheet construct for neurovascular reconstruction. The cell sheet construct has a vascular endothelial cell layer and a neural stem cell layer, and the two layers are physically in direct contact with each other, where the vascular endothelial cell layer forms branching vasculatures, and the neural stem cell layer differentiates into neurons. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing the cell sheet construct, having the following steps: culturing vascular endothelial cells on a substrate to form a vascular endothelial cell layer, seeding neural stem cells on the vascular endothelial cell layer to make the neural stem cells be physically in direct contact with the vascular endothelial cell layer, and culturing the neural stem cells and the vascular endothelial cell layer to differentiate into neurons and branching vasculatures to form a cell sheet construct.

Exemplary embodiments provide in vitro brain models, such as in vitro models of a neurovascular unit or a functionally connected trineural pathway, and systems, devices and methods of use thereof. The present invention provides in vitro brain models, systems, devices and methods that mimic in vivo conditions to, for example, determine the effect of a test compound, such as a drug candidate or a toxin, on various biological responses, such as for example, cell viability, cell growth, migration, differentiation and maintenance of cell phenotype, metabolic activity, structural remodeling and tissue level pre-stress, a neural activity, such as an electrophysiological activity.

Artificial ovaries comprising porous three-dimensional scaffolds are provided. Also provided are ink compositions and methods for printing the scaffolds. The artificial ovaries have spatial arrangements and cellular compositions that allow them to mimic native ovarian tissue. As such, they can be cultured or transplanted to support female endocrine function and/or the development of oocytes and/or eggs.

A method for producing a three-dimensional cell structure having a vascular network, including preparing a mixture of a cationic substance, a polyelectrolyte, an extracellular matrix component, and a cell population including endothelial cells, collecting, from the mixture, a cell aggregate including the cell population, the cationic substance, the polyelectrolyte, and the extracellular matrix component, and culturing a collected cell aggregate in a medium. The mixture includes the extracellular matrix at a concentration of 1.0×10.sup.−8 mg/mL or more and less than 2.5×10.sup.−2 mg/mL.

The present invention concerns a tissue-engineered medical device, as well as a method for the production said medical device, comprising the following steps: providing a polymer scaffold comprising a mesh comprising polyglycolic acid, and a coating comprising poly-4-hydroxybutyrate; application of a cell suspension containing preferably human cells to the polymer scaffold; placement of the seeded polymer scaffold in a bioreactor and mechanical stimulation by exposure to a pulsatile flux of incremental intensity, thereby forming an extracellular matrix; mounting of the graft on a conduit stabilizer and incubation in cell culture medium; decellularisation of the graft in a washing solution; nuclease treatment of the graft; and rinsing of graft. The invention further comprises and various steps of quality control of the tissue-engineered medical device.

A novel tissue usable for a kidney tissue model is provided. A method for producing a kidney-like tissue includes co-culturing a cell group containing mesenchymal stem cells, vascular endothelial cells, and clonal embryonic kidney cells.

A sphere-like cell aggregate according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a core part containing neural retina; and a covering part continuously or discontinuously covering at least a portion of a surface of the core part.

An in vitro population of human brain endothelial cells (hBECs) expressing claudin-5, occludin, ZO-1 and GLUT-1 and expressing one or more of FZD7, WNT7A, WNT7B, APCDD1, STRA6 and ZO-3 is provided. A blood brain barrier (BBB) comprising the hBECs and use of the BBB for analyzing permeability characteristics of a test agent are provided.