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US 7,732,152 B2Granted
Liquid crystalline substrates for culturing cells
AssigneeWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
InventorsNicholas L. Abbott, Jeffrey C. Mohr, Christopher J. Murphy, Elise Huang, Juan J. De Pablo, Sean P. Palecek, Nathan A. Lockwood
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to liquid crystalline substrates useful in the culture of cells and methods of their use. In certain embodiments, the invention provides methods and devices for imaging changes (e.g., reorganization) of extracellular matrix components by living cells.
Claims7
A method for detecting cell-induced changes to a cell culture substrate by living cells, comprising:
- (a) providing a cell culture substrate by:
- (i) preparing an interface between an aqueous phase and a liquid crystalline phase;
- and (ii) depositing a protein or peptide layer at said interface, wherein the protein or peptide layer functions as an extracellular matrix component;
- (b) seeding living cells onto the protein or peptide layer of said cell culture substrate;
- (c) maintaining said living cells under culture conditions;
- and
- (d) detecting reorganization of the liquid crystalline phase, said reorganization indicating cell-induced changes between the living cells and the cell culture substrate.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.