Background

Cell sheet tissue engineering is a scaffold-free technique that allows the fabrication of in vivo-like tissues, especially cell-dense and transparent tissues such as the heart and cornea. However, existing methods for fabricating cell sheets show some limitations such as a long culture period, extensive substrate treatment, fragility, and relatively small size of obtained cell sheets.

Technology Overview

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a simple and scalable fabrication method for self-assembled cell sheets, which utilizes a low surface energy and ultralow adhesion substrate to culture cells and form a self-assembled and scaffold-free cell sheet within a short incubation time. They have also developed methods to assemble them into patterns and large area constructs.