614results about "Hepatocytes" patented technology

The present invention provides cell populations that are enriched for mesendoderm and mesoderm, and cell populations that are enriched for endoderm. The cell populations of the invention are useful for generating cells for cell replacement therapy.

The subject invention a method for converting liver stem / progenitor cells to a pancreatic functional cell by transfecting said liver cells with a pancreatic development gene and / or by culturing with pancreatic differentiation factors. The resulting cells produce and secrete insulin protein in response to glucose stimulation.

A 3-dimensional structure comprising suitable cells (or entities) and the ECM (or matrix) that has been completely produced and arranged by these cells (or entities) that promotes the differentiation, dedifferentiation and / or transdifferentiation of cells and / or formation of tissue in vitro and in vivo, while at the same time promoting cell growth, proliferation, migration, acquisition of in vivo-like morphology, or combinations thereof, and that 1. provides structural and / or nutritional support to cells, tissue, organs, or combinations thereof, termed an “Autogenic Living Scaffold” (ALS); or 2. is capable of being transformed into a more complex tissue (or matrix) or a completely different type of tissue (or matrix), termed a “Living Tissue Matrix” (LTM). Autogenic means it is self-produced. The living cells that produce the LTM or ALS, or are added to Autogenic Living Scaffolds, may be genetically engineered or otherwise modified. The matrix component of the ALS or LTM provides a structural framework for cells that guide their direction of growth, enables them to be correctly spaced, prevents overcrowding, enables cells to communicate between each other, transmit subtle biological signals, receive signals from their environment, form bonds and contacts that are required for proper functioning of all cells within a unit such as a tissue, or combinations thereof. The ALS or LTM may thus provide proper or supporting mechanical and chemical environments, signals, or stimuli to other cells, to the cells that produce the ALS, to surrounding tissue at an implantation site, to a wound, for in vitro and ex vivo generation and regeneration of cells, tissue and organs, or combinations thereof. They may also provide other cells with nutrients, growth factors, and / or other necessary or useful components. They may also take in or serve as buffers for certain substances in the environment, and have also some potential at adapting to new environments.

This disclosure provides an improved system for culturing human pluripotent stem cells. Traditionally, pluripotent stem cells are cultured on a layer of feeder cells (such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts) to prevent them from differentiating. In the system described here, the role of feeder cells is replaced by components added to the culture environment that support rapid proliferation without differentiation. Effective features are a suitable support structure for the cells, and an effective medium that can be added fresh to the culture without being preconditioned by another cell type. Culturing human embryonic stem cells in fresh medium according to this invention causes the cells to expand surprisingly rapidly, while retaining the ability to differentiate into cells representing all three embryonic germ layers. This new culture system allows for bulk proliferation of pPS cells for commercial production of important products for use in drug screening and human therapy.

Disclosed are compositions and methods for isolating, immortalizing and differentiating adult stem cells, for example, particular human clonal adult liver stem cells or adipose stem cells, including specialized cell culture media for the isolation and propagation of such stem cells. Also disclosed are methods of screening for toxicity, carcinogenicity and therapeutic activity using such stem cells and immortalized or differentiated derivatives thereof. In addition, methods of treatment using such stem cells and their differentiated or immortalized derivatives thereof are disclosed.

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for treating, characterizing and diagnosing ovarian cancer. In particular, the present invention provides methods for treating and / or preventing ovarian cancer in a subject by administering to the subject an effective amount of Mullerian Inhibiting substance and / or an effective amount of an agent that inhibits BCRP1. The present invention further provides methods to identify and / or enrich for populations of ovarian cancer stem cells and populations of somatic ovarian stem cells, in particular, enrichment for populations of coelomic somatic ovarian stem cells, subcoelomic / stromal somatic ovarian stem cells and periphilar medullary somatic ovarian stem cells. The present invention also provides somatic ovarian stem cell markers and ovarian cancer stem cell markers, as well as methods to identify agents which selectively inhibit the proliferation of ovarian cancer stem cells as compared to somatic ovarian stem cells.

A multi-layered microcapsule has an inner extracellular matrix and an outer shell. The inner extracellular matrix includes a first inner layer of biopolymer and a second intermediate layer of polymer that provides partial immune-protection and holds the first layer in place. The outer shell can form an exoskeleton to provide mechanical stability. Each of the individual layers can be varied to optimize mechanical stability, cell function, and immuno-protection.

Methods of ex-vivo expansion of endodermally-derived and non-endodermally-derived progenitor and stem cells, expanded populations of renewable progenitor and stem cells and to their uses in therapeutic applications such as the production of endocrine hormones and the prevention and treatment of liver and pancreatic disease.

The invention features peptide scaffolds that are useful in the repair and replacement of various tissues. The invention also provides methods for making these scaffolds and methods for using them.

Provided are ex vivo and in vivo methods of expanding renewable stem cells using modulators of PI 3-kinase activity, expanded populations of renewable stem cells, and uses thereof.

The present invention relates generally to the generation of cells of mesodermal lineage. More particularly, the present invention contemplates a method for the preparation of differentiated or partially differentiated mesodermal cells and their use in tissue repair, regeneration and / or augmentation therapy. The identification and generation of the mesodermal cells further provides a source of transcriptome or proteome data to assess the expression profile of genes associated with the maintenance of mesodermal cells as well as their differentiation, proliferation, expansion and / or renewal potential.

The invention discloses a biodegradable particle-cell composition having at least one biodegradable particle, at least one receptive group covalently linked thereto, and a cell anchored thereto. The particle can be polylactide, a polylactide-lysine copolymer, polylactide-lysine-polyethylene glycol copolymer, starch, or collagen. The receptive group can be an antibody, a fragment of an antibody, an avidin, a streptavidin, or a biotin moiety. Moreover, the particle can also have extracellular matrix components other than collagen. The particle-cell compositions can be used for selection of cells from a population, for cell culture of anchorage-dependent cells, for cryopreservation of anchorage-dependent cells, and for transplantation as a cell therapy.

<heading lvl="0">Abstract of Disclosure< / heading> A method of forming and preserving a bioremodelable, biopolymer scaffold material by subjecting animal tissue, particularly fetal or neo-natal tissue, to chemical and mechanical processing. The process includes, but is not limited t, harvesting the tissue, optionally extracting growth and differentiation factors from the tissue, inactivating infective agents of the tissue, mechanically expressig undesirable components frm the tissue, delipidizing the tissue, washing the tissue, optionally drying the tissue, and optionally cross-linking the tissue not necessarily in the order described. The resulting product, EBM, is characterized by its microbial, fungal, viral and prion inactivated state. EBM is storng, bioremodelable, drapable and does not undergo calicification. EBM supplants previous inventions because of its unique method of preparation and broad applicability in tissue reengineering

Engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs comprising: one or more layers, wherein each layer contains one or more liver cell types, the one or more layers cohered to form a living, three-dimensional liver tissue construct. In some embodiments, the constructs are characterized by having at least one of: at least one layer comprising a plurality of cell types, the cell types spatially arranged relative to each other to create a planar geometry; and a plurality of layers, at least one layer compositionally or architecturally distinct from at least one other layer to create a laminar geometry. Also disclosed are arrays and methods of making the same. Also disclosed are engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs for use in the augmentation or restoration of one or more liver functions, by in vivo delivery of tissue or utilization of tissue in an extracorporeal device.

Disclosed herein are reagent-cell complexes comprising one or more definitive endoderm cells. Also described herein are compositions for detecting definitive endoderm. Method of enriching, isolating and / or purifying definitive endoderm cells are also disclosed.

Methods, compositions and kits for producing functional neurons, astroctyes, oligodendrocytes and progenitor cells thereof are provided. These methods, compositions and kits find use in producing neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and progenitor cells thereof for transplantation, for experimental evaluation, as a source of lineage- and cell-specific products, and the like, for example for use in treating human disorders of the CNS. Also provided are methods, compositions and kits for screening candidate agents for activity in converting cells into neuronal cells, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and progenitor cells thereof.

A method of propagating mammalian endodermally derived progenitors such as hepatic progenitors, their progeny, or mixtures thereof is developed which includes culturing mammalian progenitors, their progeny, or mixtures thereof on a layer of embryonic mammalian feeder cells in a culture medium. The culture medium can be supplemented with one or more hormones and other growth agents. These hormones and other growth agents can include insulin, dexamethasone, transferrin, nicotinamide, serum albumin, beta-mercaptoethanol, free fatty acid, glutamine, CUSO4, and H2SeO3. The culture medium can also include antibiotics. Importantly, the culture medium does not include serum. The invention includes means of inducing the differentiation of the progenitors to their adult fates such as the differentiation of hepatic progenitor cells to hepatocytes or biliary cells by adding, or excluding epidermal growth factor, respectively. The method of producing mammalian progenitors is useful in that the progenitors can be used subsequently in one or more of the following processes: identification of growth and differentiation factors, toxicological studies, drug development, antimicrobial studies, or the preparation of an extracorporeal organ such as a bioartificial liver.

Engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs comprising: one or more layers, wherein each layer contains one or more liver cell types, the one or more layers cohered to form a living, three-dimensional liver tissue construct. In some embodiments, the constructs are characterized by having at least one of: at least one layer comprising a plurality of cell types, the cell types spatially arranged relative to each other to create a planar geometry; and a plurality of layers, at least one layer compositionally or architecturally distinct from at least one other layer to create a laminar geometry. Also disclosed are arrays and methods of making the same. Also disclosed are engineered, living, three-dimensional liver tissue constructs for use in the augmentation or restoration of one or more liver functions, by in vivo delivery of tissue or utilization of tissue in an extracorporeal device.

The present invention discloses a system and a method including a body having a central microchannel separated by one or more porous membranes. The membranes are configured to divide the central microchannel into a two or more parallel central microchannels, wherein one or more first fluids are applied through the first central microchannel and one or more second fluids are applied through the second or more central microchannels. The surfaces of each porous membrane can be coated with cell adhesive molecules to support the attachment of cells and promote their organization into tissues on the upper and lower surface of the membrane. The pores may be large enough to only permit exchange of gases and small chemicals, or to permit migration and transchannel passage of large proteins and whole living cells. Fluid pressure, flow and channel geometry also may be varied to apply a desired mechanical force to one or both tissue layers.

The invention relates to a liver organoid, uses thereof and a method for obtaining them.

Devices, in vitro cell cultures, systems, and methods are provided for microscale cell culture analogous (CCA) device.

A method for fabricating a micro-organ device comprises providing a microscale support having one or more microfluidic channels and one or more micro-chambers for housing a micro-organ and printing a micro-organ on the microscale support using a cell suspension in a syringe controlled by a computer-aided tissue engineering system, wherein the cell suspension comprises cells suspended in a solution containing a material that functions as a three-dimensional scaffold. The printing is performed with the computer-aided tissue engineering system according to a particular pattern. The micro-organ device comprises at least one micro-chamber each housing a micro-organ; and at least one microfluidic channel connected to the micro-chamber, wherein the micro-organ comprises cells arranged in a configuration that includes microscale spacing between portions of the cells to facilitate diffusion exchange between the cells and a medium supplied from the at least one microfluidic channel.

Surfaces useful for cell culture comprise a support to which is bound a CAR material, and, bound to the CAR material, an ECM protein, or a biologically active fragment or variant thereof such as elastin, fibronectin, vitronectin, laminin, collagen I, collagen III, collagen IV, and collagen VI. Also, optionally present on the surface is an active factor, preferably a polycationic polymer or a biologically active fragment or variant thereof, such as polyethyleneimine (PEI), poly-D-lysine (PDL), poly-L-lysine (PLL), poly-D-ornithine (PDO) or poly-L-ornithine (PLO). This surface is used in cell culture to promote cell attachment, survival, and / or proliferation of primary liver cells. The invention also relates to methods utilizing this surface, such as methods for attachment, survival, and / or proliferation of cells. Further disclosed is the use of the surface in cell culture with serum-free medium. Methods of screening using the surface of the invention are also disclosed.

The present invention is drawn to the generation of micropatterns of biomolecules and cells on standard laboratory materials through selective ablation of a physisorbed biomolecule with oxygen plasma. In certain embodiments, oxygen plasma is able to ablate selectively physisorbed layers of biomolecules (e.g., type-I collagen, fibronectin, laminin, and Matrigel) along complex non-linear paths which are difficult or impossible to pattern using alternative methods. In addition, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to the micropatterning of multiple cell types on curved surfaces, multiwell plates, and flat bottom flasks. The invention also features kits for use with the subject methods.

Devices, in vitro cell cultures, systems, and methods are provided for microscale cell culture analogous (CCA) device.

Devices, in vitro cell cultures, systems, and methods are provided for microscale cell culture analogous (CCA) device.

Disclosed herein are reagent-cell complexes comprising one or more definitive endoderm cells. Also described herein are compositions for detecting definitive endoderm. Method of enriching, isolating and / or purifying definitive endoderm cells are also disclosed.

Devices, in vitro cell cultures, systems, and methods are provided for microscale cell culture analogous (CCA) device.