A method for in vitro production of cartilage tissue, which includes the steps of: i) culturing chondrocytes on an adherent culture system in a dedifferentiation culture medium that activates Wnt signaling pathway to obtain chondrocytes with a morphology of fibroblastic-like cells; ii) culturing the fibroblastic-like chondrocytes on an adherent culture system in a redifferentiation culture medium that inactivates Wnt signaling pathway to obtain chondrocytes with full capacity to resynthesize hyaline matrix; and iii) culturing the chondrocytes obtained in step ii) in a three-dimensional culture system in induction/maturation culture medium that maintain the inactivation of Wnt signaling pathway. Also, the therapeutic uses and screening methods using the cartilage tissue thus produced.

A method for producing renal stromal cells, comprising a step (3) of culturing renal stromal precursors in a medium comprising a platelet derived growth factor receptor agonist to obtain renal stromal cells is provided as a technique for supplying renal stromal cells. This production method can further comprise a step (2) of inducing renal stromal precursors from neural crest cells, and a step (1) of culturing pluripotent stem cells in a medium comprising a GSK3β inhibitor, a TGFβ inhibitor, and retinoic acid and/or a derivative thereof to induce neural crest cells.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a culture medium containing exosomes released by umbilical cord blood stem cells. The preparation method is based on culturing the umbilical cord blood stem cells in a serum-free medium supplemented with GDF-11, EGF, FGF2, TFG-β1, and/or VEGF. The culture medium produced by treating umbilical cord blood stem cells with a serum-free medium supplemented with 5 types of growth factors and the exosomes isolated from the culture medium has a higher total protein content and extracellular matrix protein content, when compared to a culture medium produced by culturing umbilical cord blood stem cells in a serum-free medium to which the growth factor is not added. In addition, exosomes released by umbilical cord blood stem cells cultured in a serum-free medium containing five growth factors have a high concentration, a small size, and an even distribution.

The umbilical cord blood stem cell culture medium prepared according to the present invention contains a high content of high-potency exosomes and has a high skin regeneration and/or anti-inflammatory effect, so it can be used in a cosmetic composition for skin application requiring skin penetration and a pharmaceutical composition for wound treatment.

The invention disclosed herein generally relates to methods and systems for converting stem cells into specific tissue(s) or organ(s) through directed differentiation. In particular, the invention disclosed herein relates to methods and systems for promoting human self-organizing single-rosette spheroids (SOSRS), a type of brain organoid, comprising neuroepithelium having either a dorsal cell fate or a ventral cell fate formation from pluripotent stem cells.

The invention disclosed herein generally relates to methods and systems for converting stem cells into specific tissue(s) or cells through directed differentiation. In particular, the invention disclosed herein relates to methods and systems for promoting functional basal-like cells from pluripotent stem cell-derived lung bud tip progenitor organoid tissue through activation of SMAD signaling via activation of TGFβ1 (and/or the TGFβ signaling pathway) and BMP4 (and/or the BMP signaling pathway).

Provided are new strategies, methods and systems, described herein as vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-assisted air-liquid-interface (ALI) culture, to significantly increase the number of enteroendocrine (EEC) and enterochromaffin (EC) cells over the traditional submerged culture, while at the same time maintaining a high barrier integrity of monolayers. The new strategies, methods and systems overcome the limitations of the existing EEC enrichment methods by maintaining high cell viability and barrier integrity and without requiring complicated procedures of cocultures or genetic engineering/induction. The created EEC-enriched, contiguous monolayer platform acts as a robust analytical tool to enable functional studies of hormone secretion from EEC cells with high signal background ratio and repeatability.

This disclosure relates to methods of making vascular smooth muscle like cells from precursor stem cells. In certain embodiments the vascular smooth muscle like cells are able to contract in response to vasoactive agents, In certain embodiments, the methods comprise contacting pluripotent stem cells with a mesoderm induction growth medium, followed by replicating the cells in a serum-free vascular smooth muscle cell growth medium in the presence of collagen, and purifying replicated cells that express cadherin-2. In certain embodiments, the purified cells are used to treat or prevent a cardiovascular disease or condition.

The present invention provides modified monocytes, modified macrophages, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the modified monocytes or modified macrophages described herein and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient. Uses of the modified monocytes or the modified macrophages for the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and inducing cartilage formation are provided. Also disclosed herein are in vitro culture methods for generating the modified macrophages.

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.

A method for generating a population of cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in an integrated process. The method may comprise seeding the iPSCs on a modified surface of a modified cell culture substrate, culturing the seeded iPSCs on the modified surface of the modified cell culture substrate in an animal component-free culture medium, and differentiating the cultured iPSCs to the population of cardiomyocytes on the modified surface of the modified cell culture substrate. The modified cell culture substrate may comprise a patterned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, a first coating comprising a plurality of polydopamine molecules, and a second coating comprising a plurality of Laminin 511 E8 Fragment (LME8) molecules.