Development of xeno-free cell therapeutics platform based on initiated chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

The cell therapeutics have been developed as a technology for treating damaged tissues. In this study, in order to solve the problems that may occur during the transplantation process of cell therapeutics, the initiated chemical vapor deposition was utilized to mix two monomers with distinct surface energies to control the surface free energy, subsequently to achieve an intermediate level of cell adhesion. In this situation, weakening the ligand binding of the adhesion protein on the cell surface by removing divalent cations in the culture medium was employed as a cell sheet detaching trigger. By combining two methods, I developed a culture platform for fabrication of cell sheet without temperature change. In addition, in the case of xeno-materials such as Matrigel, which is used for culturing human pluripotent stem cells, it blocks the use of such high-functioning cells in the cell therapeutics. Therefore, in this study, a functional polymer thin film was developed through an initiated chemical vapor deposition, replacing xeno-materials in the culturing process of human pluripotent stem cells under fully chemically defined environment.