A novel material of high density collagen fibrils: A collagen xerogel membrane and its application to transplantation in vivo and a culture chamber in vitro

摘要

We developed a mass fabrication technology of not only a thin but also thick collagen vitrigel (CV) membrane as a novel material attached to a parafilm in a dried state that easily peel off. The dried CV membrane detached from the parafilm was considered as a collagen xerogel (CX) membrane with an excellent handling ability. Such a CX membrane was easily converted into a CV membrane by the rehydration. The thick CX membrane is transplantable to a rat extensive skin defect by directly suturing it with surgical ligature. Also, we developed a CV membrane chamber by pasting the thin CX membrane onto an edge of plastic tube. The CV membrane chamber was useful for reconstructing culture models such as "tissue sheet" composed of epithelial cells alone or endothelial cells alone and "organoid plate" composed of epithelial cells, mesenchymal cells and endothelial cells.