Nanotechnology-based regenerative medicine--cell sheet engineering utilizing temperature-responsive culture dishes

摘要

Regenerative medicine is believed to overcome shortcomings of conventional therapies including symptomatic drug therapy and surgical removal. We have utilized nanotechnology for regenerative medicine to develop temperature-responsive culture dishes, on which a temperature-responsive polymer is covalently grafted with precise control of its density and thickness in a nanometer scale. Confluent cells cultured on the dishes are intactly harvested as a single contiguous cell sheet by reducing temperature below 32 degrees C, and harvested cell sheets are subjected to tissue reconstruction, named cell sheet engineering. Here, we introduce the examples of clinical applications including corneal regeneration as well as large animal studies.