Breakthroughs in research, especially in regenerative medicine, which is promising cures for numerous devastating diseases and injuries, are bringing excitement and pressure to the scientific community. The potential for benefits in drug discovery and tissue regeneration is unlimited.
The question in most cases is not whether the promise will be fulfilled, but rather when, and who will make these discoveries a reality to patients.
This growing pressure is demanding rapid and reliable results from the researchers who are admitting that cell culture techniques are lagging significantly behind the fast developments and breakthroughs of other areas of research.
Now, the time has come for cell-based systems to progress and make significant contributions simply by switching from two-dimensional to three-dimensional (3D) environments in vitro, in which cells are grown and studied.
Growing cells on flat surfaces seems artificial and unnatural since it does not bear a resemblance to in vivo architectures where cells flourish at their best.
Three-dimensional cell culture scaffolds are a better representation of the natural environment that is experienced by the cells in the living organism. Reflecting natural conditions allows for intercellular interactions with more realistic biochemical and physiological responses.
In a three-dimensional environment, cells behave and respond more like they would in vivo to internal and external stimuli, such as changes in temperature, pH, nutrients absorption, transport, and differentiation.
The power of regenerative medicine provides the means to understanding numerous intriguing cellular progressions such as development, aging, and tissue rejuvenation.
The only way to understand these fascinating processes in biology is to study model systems that truly resemble those in the organism, making three-dimensional cell culture imperative.
Many cell-based assays used in important research and screening laboratories today are not representative of complex in vivo cellular behaviours simply because they are not being performed in in vivo like environments.
Culturing cells in two-dimensional environments does not represent cell morphology, growth rates, contact geometries, transport properties, and numerous other cellular functions that are characteristic of the behavior of the cells in living tissues.
HydroMatrix Peptide Hydrogel offered by Sigma-Aldrich is a synthetic peptide nanofibre scaffold, which self-assembles into a highly cross-linked three-dimensional Hydrogel for use in three-dimensional cell cultures.
What makes HydroMatrix Peptide Hydrogel superior to other three-dimensional systems offered is the fact that it is a fully synthetic material with no possible source of adventitious agents due to animal-derived matter, allowing researchers to worry about more important things.
Common challenges among researchers doing cell culture in three-dimension is that different cell types have different microenvironments, which means they require different culture conditions, growth factors, media, and certainly different matrices.
Also, different assays, such as expansion or differentiation, require different cell culture conditions.
Most three-dimensional systems offered have in fact generic or defined environments, which do not accommodate most cells. By adjusting the concentration of the HydroMatrix solutions, researchers are able to manage the flexibility of the three-dimensional structural design, and mold the architecture to meet their individual requirements.
HydroMatrix promotes cell growth and migration and has been shown to support the proliferation of many cell types, including neural stem cells, neurons, glia, astrocytes, fibrblasts, and keratinocytes.
Another popular avenue of culturing numerous cell types is by the use of extracellular matrix (ECM) gel.
The majority of ECM gels offered on the market, such as Matrigel, are of murine origin. Sigma is pleased to introduce the first human ECM gel, MaxGel.
MaxGel provides a rich three-dimensional environment to promote cellular proliferation. It contains extracellular matrix components including collagens, laminin, fibronectin, tenascin, elastin, a number of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans.
MaxGel promotes cell growth and migration and has been shown to support the proliferation of many cells, including neural stem cells, neurons, glia, astrocytes, fibroblasts, hepatocytes and keratinocytes.
MaxGel contains reduced amounts of growth factors since it is a derived basement membrane extract cultured in vitro which supports lot-to-lot consistency. Other ECM products are solubilized basement membrane preparations extracted from mouse tumor and include high quantities of endogenous growth factors.
Benefits of using human ECM over the mouse alternative are especially important for cell-based therapeutic research since human ECM does not carry the same risk of rejection, an allergic reaction, and/or a transition of animal adventitious agents to human cell/tissue cultures in vitro.
Sigma understands that there are various constraints and challenges of switching to three-dimensional culturing such as issues of convenience, trained technicians, time and budget limitations, however the benefits and superiority of this technique is so enormous, that it is truly essential and will make future breakthroughs happen more rapidly.
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- Simon Nikolay is with Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, Where. www.sigma-aldrich.com.
