Therapeutic Serum from Co-Cultured Cells
Solution Overview
Problem
Co-culturing skin cells to produce a therapeutic serum for cosmetic preparations is challenging due to differences in growth rates and nutrient requirements, leading to dominance by one cell type and altered intercellular signaling, which affects the production of necessary proteins and molecular factors for wound healing and skin health.
Innovation Solution
A method involving sequential seeding of cells with varying growth rates and the use of specific growth factors in a minimal medium to maintain cells in a proliferative phase, ensuring balanced co-culture composition and intercellular signaling, followed by stress induction to enhance serum production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If different skin cells are co-cultured to produce therapeutic serum, then the serum composition better matches the complete needs of skin, but the culture is dominated by one cell type due to different growth rates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-seeding the culture surface with less aggressive cells (such as keratinocytes) before adding more aggressive cells (such as fibroblasts). This preliminary establishment of a cell layer prevents the aggressive cells from completely dominating the culture, thereby maintaining a balanced co-culture that produces serum matching complete skin needs.
2Adaptability or versatility
If fibroblasts are co-cultured with other skin cells, then the culture includes diverse cell types, but fibroblasts dominate due to their aggressive growth pattern
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes keratinocyte monolayers on culture surfaces before introducing fibroblasts. This preliminary action creates a physical and biological barrier that limits fibroblast overgrowth while maintaining their presence in the culture, thus preserving cell type diversity without allowing fibroblast population dominance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates different local environments within the culture system by providing specific growth conditions and media compositions that favor the survival and function of different cell types in their respective zones, preventing any single cell type from completely dominating the entire culture.
3Quantity of substance
If cells are maintained in co-culture for extended periods, then sufficient serum can be produced, but cells become senescent and molecular factor production is altered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary passage of cells to establish healthy, proliferative cell populations before initiating serum collection. This ensures that cells are in their prime functional state and will maintain reliable molecular factor production throughout the serum production period.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous media replacement and culture maintenance protocols that keep cells in a healthy, proliferative state throughout the serum production process. This continuous care prevents senescence and maintains consistent molecular factor production over extended culture periods.
Data Source
AI summary
A therapeutic serum suitable for inclusion in a cosmetic preparation may be produced by stressing a co-culture including proliferative cells. The co-culture of cells may be obtained by first establishing a monolayer of cells on a surface. After a monolayer of first culture is established, a second culture comprising more resilient and/or aggressive cells may be over-seeded on the monolayer and established. Additional cultures comprising increasingly dominant cells may then be over-seeded and established until a monolayer having the desired population of cells is obtained. The monolayer is then stressed to obtain a serum by conditioning a collection medium. The obtained serum may be combined with a suitable cosmetic base to provide a cosmetic preparation.