Description:
Reference #: 01345
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Digested Decellularized Tissue as Microcarrier for Cell Culture and Expansion
Background:
Cells in vivo reside within an interconnected 3D structure. Conversely, cells seeded on 2D culture plates or 3D suspended microbead- or microcarrier-based tissue culture are highly polarized, as part of the cell is firmly attached to the rigid surface of the plate/microcarrier while the rest of the cell is in contact with the culture medium.
This polarization leads to cellular shock and stress which activates the expression of reactive oxygen (ROS) and other toxic species. The release of ROS can cause DNA damage, cell mutation, and tumorigenesis. Further, the cell shape on culture plates/microcarrier, as compared to the in vivo shape of the cells within the tissue, can dramatically affect cell phenotype, lineage determination, and fate. As a result, there is undeniable uncertainty regarding the fate of plate/microcarrier-cultured cells with respect to transplantation and clinical applications. In addition, the lack of tissue-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) in plate/microcarrier cultures can affect cell phenotype and fate.
Invention Description:
This invention proposes to use a 3D micronized decellularized/digested decellularized tissue as a platform to culture and expand cells corresponding to that specific tissue.
Potential Applications:
An important component of regenerative therapies is cell biomanufacturing to produce large quantities of cells from an initial small number of patient-derived cells. Regenerative therapies require tens of billions of cells from an initial batch of approximately tens of millions.
This invention proposes a novel biomimetic, tissue-specific platform for passaging and expansion of cells that does not need to be removed prior to transplantation. The platform also provides a tissue-specific in vivo-mimetic matrix to enhance cell phenotype and function.
Advantages and Benefits:
Current commercially available microcarriers are either non-biodegradable or synthetic or all-purpose type of biomolecules, and have to be separated from the cells for therapeutic applications. Trypsin and other enzymes added to repetitively detach and separate cells from the microcarriers for cell expansion remove adhesion proteins from the cell surface, which can negatively affect cell function and fate.
Further, the all-purpose nature of natural matrices like gelatin can affect differentiation and maturation of expanded cells to a specified lineage and phenotype. An ideal microcarrier for cell expansion and transplantation should not need to be separated from the cells and should be an integral part of the final cellular construct for transplantation, with a viable mechanism for passaging via attachment and detachment of the cells from microcarrier for expansion.