Methods for producing mature adipocytes and methods of use thereof
AssigneePresident and Fellows of Harvard College
InventorsBenjamin D. Pope, Kevin Kit Parker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides methods and systems which accommodate 3-dimensional adipocyte expansion to produce, e.g., mature adipocytes and synthetic adipose tissue with cellular properties of mature adult organisms, including cell size and cytoarchitecture, and the use of such methods and systems for, e.g., in vitro drug screening and/or toxicity assays, disease modeling, and therapeutic applications.
Claims26
A method for producing mature adipocytes in vitro, comprising:
- seeding a plurality of progenitor cells into a seeding site;
- culturing the progenitor cells to produce adipocytes having a first diameter;
- disposing a fiber layer over the adipocytes;
- and
- culturing the adipocytes with the fiber layer until at least one of the adipocytes grows to a second diameter of between about 30 μm and about 300 μm, thereby generating at least one mature adipocyte in vitro.
A method for controlling hypertrophy of adipocyte cells in culture, the method comprising:
- disposing a pattern of islands on a support;
- seeding the pattern of islands with progenitor cells;
- culturing the progenitor cells to produce adipocytes;
- and
- disposing a fiber layer over the adipocytes;
- the pattern of islands being arranged with a center to center spacing between each island such that when the adipocytes are cultured with the fiber layer disposed over the adipocytes, at least one of the adipocytes grows to a diameter up to the center to center spacing between each island.
A method for producing a tissue-engineered meat product, the method comprising:
- seeding a plurality of progenitor cells into a seeding site;
- culturing the progenitor cells to produce adipocytes;
- disposing a fiber layer over the adipocytes;
- culturing the adipocytes with the fiber layer until at least one of the adipocytes grows into a mature adipocyte;
- and
- combining the at least one mature adipocyte with an engineered muscle tissue product to produce an engineered meat product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.