Regenerative medicine Tosoh Introduces New Cell Culture System

Tosoh’s 2.5D Cell Culture System is capable of simplifying the culturing of large quantities of uniformly sized cell masses by making use of an adhesion area to which only uniform spherical cells attach. The system proves beneficial for the purpose of drug discovery as well as regenerative medicine.

Tokyo/Japan – The Tosoh Corporation developed the 2.5D (two and half dimensional) Cell Culture System which will facilitate drug discovery and regenerative medicine by simplifying the culturing of large quantities of uniformly sized cell masses. The system enables the spontaneous formation of many uniform cell masses on an adhesion area. Tosoh plans to introduce its 2.5D Cell Culture System at Biojapan, the world’s oldest biotechnology exhibition.

In drug discovery and regenerative medicine, research into organoids produced from ips (induced pluripotent stem) and ES (embryonic stem) cells is progressing. But culturing organoids requires the efficient formation of large numbers of homogeneous cell masses.

Conventional 3D (three-dimensional) culturing, however, forms cell masses in a suspended state in a culture container surface-treated to prevent cell adhesion. This results in varied mass sizes and makes it difficult to obtain large quantities of homogeneous cell masses. In addition, 3D cultures require fastidious handling to avoid damaging the fragile floating cell masses.

Tosoh’s 2.5D Cell Culture System, conversely, uses an adhesion area to which only uniform spherical cells attach. And because the cell mass attaches to the surface of the system, the culture medium can be easily handled, significantly reducing the effort needed to, for example, replace the medium. The system’s formation of large quantities of uniform cell masses, moreover, stabilizes the efficiency of its differentiation induction: the transformation of cells into target cells by controlling the conditions under which the cells are cultured.

Tosoh has confirmed that its 2.5D Cell Culture System is applicable to diverse cells, including ips cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and cancer cells. The system can induce the differentiation of human ips cells into nerve cells and cardiomyocytes and can test the efficacy of anticancer drugs by using cancer cells.

Tosoh continues to contribute to drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Its development of the 2.5D Cell Culture System is an enormous step forward in that respect.

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