Disclosed are engineered feeder cells comprising soluble or membrane bound TGF-b and methods of their use in the production of NK cells resistant to TGF-b and use of said generated TGF-b resistant NK cells to treat a cancer.

An artificial tissue containing pancreatic islet cells, fibroblasts and/or cells capable of differentiating, extracellular matrix, and vascular endothelial cells, in which the fibroblasts and/or the cells capable of differentiating, the extracellular matrix, and the vascular endothelial cells constitute a three-dimensional tissue structure in which a vascular network structure has been formed, and in which the three-dimensional tissue structure contains pancreatic islets constituted by aggregating ten or more of the pancreatic islet cells.

Disclosed are a therapeutic agent for muscular dystrophy employing pluripotent stem cells obtained from dental pulp and a method for preparation thereof. The therapeutic agent for muscular dystrophy comprises pluripotent stem cell-enriched human dental pulp-derived cells as the active ingredient, and is prepared by a method of preparation comprising the steps of: (a) adding dental pulp-derived cells contained in a dental pulp suspension, in a culture vessel containing feeder cells whose proliferative ability is suppressed, onto a membrane having micropores that can block feeder cells from passing therethrough and supported within the vessel in a manner that avoids direct contact of the lower side face thereof with the feeder cells, and culturing the dental pulp-derived cells on the membrane while preventing direct contact with the feeder cells, and (b) recovering the cells having grown on the membrane as the pluripotent stem cell-enriched human dental pulp-derived cells.

A method of promoting spheroid formation, including: a preparation step of preparing a mixture obtained by mixing a cell sample with a promoter; and a culture step of culturing, inside a spheroid formation-culture vessel, the mixture obtained in the preparation step, in which the promoter is a polymer in which one or more selected from the group consisting of D-glucosamine, D-galactosamine, D-glucuronic acid, L-iduronic acid, and D-galactose are polymerized.

A method for treating an oral condition of a subject by grafting cultured tissue constructs to the oral tissue. The cultured tissue constructs comprise cultured cells and endogenously produced extracellular matrix components without the requirement of exogenous matrix components or network support or scaffold members. Some tissue constructs of the invention are comprised of multiple cell layers or more than one cell type. The tissue constructs of the invention have morphological features and functions similar to tissues their cells are derived and their strength makes them easily handleable. Preferred cultured tissue constructs of the invention comprise cells derived from human tissue.

The present disclosure relates to: an artificial peritoneal tissue comprising a cellular tissue and a mesothelial cell layer that covers the surface of the cellular tissue, wherein the cellular tissue comprises a fibroblast, an extracellular matrix, and a vascular endothelial cell and/or a lymphatic endothelial cell each capable of forming a lumen; and a method for producing the artificial peritoneal tissue.

The present invention provides methods for cellular seeding onto three-dimensional fibroblast constructs, three-dimensional fibroblast constructs seeded with muscle cells, and uses therefore.

Methods of producing human stem cells are disclosed for parthenogenetically activating human oocytes by manipulation of O.sub.2 tension, including manipulation of Ca.sup.2+ under high O.sub.2 tension and contacting oocytes with serine threonine kinase inhibitors under low O.sub.2 tension, isolating inner cell masses (ICMs) from the activated oocytes, and culturing the cells of the isolated ICMs under high O.sub.2 tension. Moreover, methods are described for the production of stems cells from activated oocytes in the absence of non-human animal products, including the use of human feeder cells/products for culturing ICM/stem cells. Stem cells produced by the disclosed methods are also described.

A method of assessing an anti-cancer drug including culturing a cell structure including cancer cells and stromal cells in a presence of at least one anti-cancer drug, and assessing an anti-cancer effect of the at least one anti-cancer drug based on a number of viable cancer cells in the cell structure after the culturing.

The present invention relates to a method for producing hair microfollicles comprising the steps of: a) providing de novo papillae, b) providing other cell populations selected from the group of fibroblasts, keratinocytes and melanocytes, and co-culturing the de novo papillae with at least one other cell population in non-adherent culture vessels. The present invention relates also to methods of producing de novo papillae usable in said method for producing hair microfollicles.