Research and development were carried out under a system of industry-university-government collaboration, in which Hokkaido Soda was responsible for the development and manufacture of the cell culturing matrix, NIMS and the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry conducted culturing experiments with various types of cells, Primary Cell Co. produced culturing kits and made assessments for commercialization, and NOASTEC served as the secretariat of the project.
Results exceeding the existing product were obtained, including the following:
- A cell culturing matrix which is easy to handle and does not require special treatment was successfully developed.
- With the developed cell culturing matrix, nerve cell adhesion and growth are superior to those with the existing product, and active nerve growth can be observed.
- In particular, the developed matrix is effective in the culturing of fat cells, as adhesion for an extended period of time is possible. As a result, the new product has the potential for application to metabolic-related research.
- The developed matrix enables culturing of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) grafts, which is difficult with the conventional product.
As an example of these results, with nerve cells, it was possible to achieve satisfactory culturing not only of general cells, but also of adult mouse DRG grafts, which had been considered comparatively difficult. This performance is exemplified by extremely good outgrowth of DRG neurons in comparison with products coated with collagen type I and poly-L-lysine, which are similar functional culturing matrixes.
In culturing of rat primary visceral cells, which tend to peel off as fat accumulation progresses, long-term culturing after fat accumulation was successful, and cell adhesion to the matrix was also satisfactory.
Therefore, to ensure that potential scientific and commercial users are aware of the effectiveness of this matrix, the developers will supply samples of the matrix to a large number of researchers in the medical and biotechnology fields, drug and cosmetic makers, testing and research organizations, and others free of charge, under the following conditions.