Tissue Engineering and 3D Cell Culture

In order to culture cells in a 3D environment, a scaffold is required to provide both mechanical support as well as the biological cues found in the cells native environment. This role is played in vivo by the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is a mixture of structural proteins, glycosaminoglycans, and proteoglycans that surrounds the cells. The development of scaffolds for tissue engineering and 3D cell culture is therefore veiy heavily inspired by biology, since all scaffolds are essentially attempting to mimic the natural ECM, at least to some extent. 

Carletti, E., Motta, A., MigUaresi, C., 2011. Scaffolds for tissue engineering and 3D cell culture. 3D Cell Culture Methods in molecular and Protocols 695, 17—39. 

This improved ability to design peptide-based fibers from the bottom up should pave the way to real-life applications of such materials in bionanotechnology, particularly with regard to templating inorganic and other functional materials, and as soft biomimetic scaffolds in 3D cell culture and tissue engineering. 

Recently, advances in engineering of nonbarrier tissues have led to the possibility of using these tissues for toxicological testing. These advances have primarily been with three-dimensional (3D) cell constructs. Unlike conventional two-dimensional systems, 3D cell cultures can represent the specific morphological and biochemical properties of the corresponding in vivo tissue, and are able to remain in a differentiated and functionally active state for many weeks. 

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