Construction of Human in vitro Systems for Investigating Tissue-Tissue Interactions

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K12793
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90110:Biomedical engineering-related
• Research Institution: Fukui University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Furusawa Kazuya 福井工業大学, 環境情報学部, 教授 (00510017)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 大能 俊久 福井工業大学, 環境情報学部, 准教授 (60390902)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 再生組織 / モデル実験系 / コラーゲン / 肝機能 / 尿素代謝 / 腸上皮 / 組織工学 / 生体材料

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have developed methods for reproducing tissue-tissue interactions by connecting the engineered liver and intestine tissues which are constructed by using hydrogels. By co-culturing the engineered liver tissue and the engineered intestine tissue, an expression level of CYP3A4 was enhanced. In addition, the engineered liver tissues constructed by using collagen hydrogels with multi-channel structures showed higher levels of albumin synthesis and urea metabolism than those for the engineered liver tissue constructed by using a conventional 3D culture method. The results suggest that the metabolic functions of engineered liver tissues can be controlled by regulating the hierarchical structure of scaffold materials.

Free Research Field

組織工学　高分子化学　生体材料学　レオロジー

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この研究の成果は、栄養成分や薬品など体に影響を及ぼす物質の性質をより生体内に近い環境で調べる実験方法の確立につながります。