Origin of Serum Affects Quality of Engineered Tissues Produced by the Self-Assembly Approach

Heat-Inactivation of Fetal and Newborn Sera Did Not Impair the Expansion and Scaffold Engineering Potentials of Fibroblasts

Heat inactivation of bovine sera is routinely performed in cell culture laboratories. Nevertheless, it remains debatable whether it is still necessary due to the improvement of the production process of bovine sera. Do the benefits balance the loss of many proteins, such as hormones and growth factors, that are very useful for cell culture? This is even truer in the case of tissue engineering, the processes of which is often very demanding. This balance is examined here, from nine populations of fibroblasts originating from three different organs, by comparing the capacity of adhesion and proliferation of cells, their metabolism, and the capacity to produce the stroma; their histological appearance, thickness, and mechanical properties were also evaluated. Overall, serum inactivation does not appear to provide a significant benefit.

Cell-assembled extracellular matrix (CAM) sheet production: Translation from using human to large animal cells

We have created entirely biological tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) using sheets of cell-assembled extracellular matrix (CAM) produced by human fibroblasts in vitro. A large animal TEVG would allow long-term pre-clinical studies in a clinically relevant setting (graft size and allogeneic setting). Therefore, canine, porcine, ovine, and human skin fibroblasts were compared for their ability to form CAM sheets. Serum sourcing greatly influenced CAM production in a species-dependent manner. Ovine cells produced the most homogenous and strongest animal CAM sheets but remained ≈3-fold weaker than human sheets despite variations of serum, ascorbate, insulin, or growth factor supplementations. Key differences in cell growth dynamics, tissue development, and tissue architecture and composition were observed between human and ovine. This study demonstrates critical species-to-species differences in fibroblast behavior and how they pose a challenge when attempting to substitute animal cells for human cells during the development of tissue-engineered constructs that require long-term cultures.

Engineering Tissues without the Use of a Synthetic Scaffold: A Twenty-Year History of the Self-Assembly Method

Twenty years ago, Dr. François A. Auger, the founder of the Laboratory of Experimental Organogenesis (LOEX), introduced the self-assembly technique. This innovative technique relies on the ability of dermal fibroblasts to produce and assemble their own extracellular matrix, differing from all other tissue-engineering techniques that use preformed synthetic scaffolds. Nevertheless, the use of the self-assembly technique was limited for a long time due to its main drawbacks: time and cost. Recent scientific breakthroughs have addressed these limitations. New protocol modifications that aim at increasing the rate of extracellular matrix formation have been proposed to reduce the production costs and laboratory handling time of engineered tissues. Moreover, the introduction of vascularization strategies in vitro permits the formation of capillary-like networks within reconstructed tissues. These optimization strategies enable the large-scale production of inexpensive native-like substitutes using the self-assembly technique. These substitutes can be used to reconstruct three-dimensional models free of exogenous materials for clinical and fundamental applications.

A 3D-psoriatic skin model for dermatological testing: The impact of culture conditions

Background

Inadequate representation of the human tissue environment during a preclinical screen can result in inaccurate predictions of compound effects. Consequently, pharmaceutical investigators are searching for preclinical models that closely resemble original tissue for predicting clinical outcomes.

Methods

The current research aims to compare the impact of using serum-free medium instead of complete culture medium during the last step of psoriatic skin substitute reconstruction. Skin substitutes were produced according to the self-assembly approach.

Results

Serum-free conditions have no negative impact on the reconstruction of healthy or psoriatic skin substitutes presented in this study regarding their macroscopic or histological appearances. ATR-FTIR results showed no significant differences in the CH₂ bands between psoriatic substitutes cultured with or without serum, thus suggesting that serum deprivation did not have a negative impact on the lipid organization of their stratum corneum. Serum deprivation could even lead to a better organization of healthy skin substitute lipids. Percutaneous analyses demonstrated that psoriatic substitutes cultured in serum-free conditions showed a higher permeability to hydrocortisone compared to controls, while no significant differences in benzoic acid and caffeine penetration profiles were observed.

Conclusions

Results obtained with this 3D-psoriatic skin substitute demonstrate the potential and versatility of the model. It could offer good prediction of drug related toxicities at preclinical stages performed in order to avoid unexpected and costly findings in the clinic.

General significance

Together, these findings offer a new approach for one of the most important challenges of the 21st century, namely, prediction of drug toxicity.

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Impact of serum-free conditions during psoriatic skin substitutes reconstruction.

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Lipids disorganization of healthy and psoriatic skin substitutes.

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Permeation profiles of healthy skin substitutes.

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Permeation profiles of psoriatic skin substitutes.

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Potential and veratility of a 3d-reconstructed model to perform dermatological testing.