Design of Temperature-Responsive Cell Culture Surfaces for Cell Sheet-Based Regenerative Therapy and 3D Tissue Fabrication

Abstract

This chapter describes the concept of “cell sheet engineering” for the creation of transplantable cellular tissues and organs. In contrast to scaffold-based tissue engineering, cell sheet engineering facilitates the reconstruction of scaffold-free, cell-dense tissues. Cell sheets were harvested by changing the temperature of thermoresponsive cell culture surfaces modified with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm) with a thickness on the nanometer scale. The transplantation of 2D cell sheet tissues has been used in clinical settings. Although 3D tissues were formed simply by layering 2D cell sheets, issues related to vascularization within 3D tissues and the large-scale production of cells must be addressed to create thick and large 3D tissues and organs.