Quality control of cultured tissues requires tools for quantitative analyses of heterogeneous features developed in manufacturing process

Abstract

Tissue engineering and related technology have attracted a great deal of medical attention as promising fields for curing defective tissues in vivo. Nowadays, many companies have been established for supplying the reconstructed grafts of cultured tissues for transplantation. The manufacturing processes generally deals with the handlings of starter cells offered by patients (or donors) as raw materials to cultured tissues as products, requiring the construction of novel ex vivo methodologies based on principles different from conventional processes for chemical and pharmaceutical productions. In addition, the raw materials have heterogeneity depending on the state of patients and location of cell harvests, and the products possess spatial cell distribution in the three dimensional structure. These features request a unique strategy in manufacturing process accompanied with the quality control for raw materials and products. This review article describes the contribution of tissue bankers and biochemical engineers to the quality control of cultured tissues during manufacturing, introducing the advances in methodologies to evaluate spatial heterogeneity of cells (or aggregates) and matrices in cultured tissues.

Quantifying light scattering with single-mode fiber -optic confocal microscopy

“…Confocal microscopy is beginning to establish itself as a method of examining tissues in vivo as a diagnostic tool for the human cornea [6,7] and for skin [8,9]. This technique has also been examined for in vitro quality control of tissue engineered constructs [10,11]. It has been suggested that collagen plays an important role in the maximum load force of tissue-engineered constructs [12-14].…”