2020/06/12
Keio University
Yasuda Women's University
Nagaoka University of Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Professor Kenjiro Takemura and Postdoctoral Fellow Kazuhiro Imashiro (at the time; currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo Women's Medical University) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, in collaboration with Lecturer Makoto Hirano of Yasuda Women's University, Associate Professor Kiyoshi Oonuma of the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Assistant Professor Yuta Kurashina of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Associate Professor Shogo Miyata of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, have developed a technology to detach cell sheets from general-purpose culture vessels using only ultrasound irradiation.
Cell sheets, which are groups of cells connected in a sheet-like form, improve the efficiency of transplanting cultured cells into the body in regenerative medicine. Previously, generating cell sheets required low-temperature cultivation in special cell culture dishes coated with a temperature-responsive polymer. In contrast, the newly developed technology uses ultrasound to enable the generation of cell sheets at appropriate culture temperatures in standard culture dishes and flasks. By maintaining the culture temperature and using standard culture vessels, highly active cell sheets can be produced at a low cost. This makes it a fundamental technology that will greatly contribute to the widespread adoption of regenerative medicine, which is advancing through clinical trials.
The results of this research were published on the website of the academic journal Scientific Reports on June 11 (UK time).
For the full press release, please see below.