Abstract: Three-dimensional information on a biological parameter relating to at least one selected from viability, proliferating ability, migration, and differentiation of cultured cells can be obtained by a simple two-dimensional analytical technique by constructing a cell evaluation system including a multilayered cell sheet, target cells, and a two-dimensional analyzer.

Abstract: This invention provides a cell pattern recovery tool comprising a base material layer having a surface subjected to easy adhesion treatment, a temperature responsive polymer layer that is provided on the base material layer and has a surface subjected to silane treatment, and a cell adhesion inhibiting material layer provided on the temperature responsive polymer layer. According to the present invention, a cell pattern can be rapidly recovered while maintaining the cell pattern stably and reliably under minimally invasive conditions for the cells.

Abstract: A therapeutic-substance carrying/administering appliance includes a cylindrical outer sheath; a slide member installed in the cylindrical outer sheath to be slidable therein; and a sheet supporting member, connected to a distal end of the slide member and made of a resilient material, for supporting a sheet-shaped therapeutic substance. The sheet supporting member is held in a flat unrolled shape in a free state in which the sheet supporting member projects outwardly from a distal end of the cylindrical outer sheath. When the sheet supporting member is in the free state, sliding the slide member in a retracting direction causes the sheet supporting member to contact the distal end of the cylindrical outer sheath, and subsequently further moving the slide member in the retracting direction causes the sheet supporting member to be retracted into the cylindrical outer sheath while being deformed into a tubular shape.

Abstract: The function of liver tissue cells can be maintained over a long period of time by culturing the liver tissue cells on a cell culture support, which is coated with a polymer showing a change in the hydration force in the temperature range of from 0 to 80° C., within the temperature range wherein the polymer has a small hydration force, then changing the temperature of the liquid culture medium to a level at which the polymer shows a large hydration force, thus stripping off the liver tissue cells having been cultured, and transplanting the thus obtained liver tissue cells into a definite site in vivo.

Abstract: Parenchymal cells are cultivated on cultivated endothelial cells or cultivated fibroblasts which have been separated by a surface of a specific hydrophilic polymer, and which have been patterned. A culture which contains thus formed patterned spheroids of cultivated parenchymal cells is thereby provided by this invention. This culture maintains a function which is specific to the parenchymal cells over a long period of time.

Abstract: The amount of drug consumption caused by a specific drug-metabolizing enzyme and/or the amount of the resulting metabolite(s) is measured by chromatography with an aqueous mobile phase under temperature control using a packing material whose surface is coated with a polymer having a hydration force varying in the temperature range of 0° C. to 80° C. This system enables proper evaluation of drug-metabolizing capacity through simple means without adversely affecting the environment.

Abstract: Parenchymal cells are cultivated on cultivated endothelial cells or cultivated fibroblasts which have been separated by a surface of a specific hydrophilic polymer, and which have been patterned. A culture which contains thus formed patterned spheroids of cultivated parenchymal cells is thereby provided by this invention. This culture maintains a function which is specific to the parenchymal cells over a long period of time.

Abstract: Parenchymal cells are cultivated on cultivated endothelial cells or cultivated fibroblasts which have been separated by a surface of a specific hydrophilic polymer, and which have been patterned. A culture which contains thus formed patterned spheroids of cultivated parenchymal cells is thereby provided by this invention. This culture maintains a function which is specific to the parenchymal cells over a long period of time.

Abstract: A therapeutic-substance carrying/administering appliance includes a cylindrical outer sheath; a slide member installed in the cylindrical outer sheath to be slidable therein; and a sheet supporting member, connected to a distal end of the slide member and made of a resilient material, for supporting a sheet-shaped therapeutic substance. The sheet supporting member is held in a flat unrolled shape in a free state in which the sheet supporting member projects outwardly from a distal end of the cylindrical outer sheath. When the sheet supporting member is in the free state, sliding the slide member in a retracting direction causes the sheet supporting member to contact the distal end of the cylindrical outer sheath, and subsequently further moving the slide member in the retracting direction causes the sheet supporting member to be retracted into the cylindrical outer sheath while being deformed into a tubular shape.

Abstract: A cell culture support is first prepared that is coated on a surface with a polymer the hydration force of which changes in a temperature range of 0-80° C.; cancer cells are then cultivated on the support in a temperature region where the polymer has weak hydration force; thereafter, the culture solution is adjusted to a temperature at which the polymer has a stronger hydration force, whereby the cultured cancer cells are detached; the detached cancer cells are then transplanted to a specified site of an animal on which transplantation is to be performed; this method is an efficient way of cancer cells transplantation.

Abstract: A contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging which stably circulates in the blood for a long period and which targets solid tumors, with which clear images of cancers may be obtained is disclosed. The contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging comprises as an effective ingredient a polymeric micelle having gadolinium (Gd) atoms in an inner core and an outer shell including hydrophilic polymer chain segments, which micelle is delivered to a tissue(s) and/or site(s) of solid tumor(s) in vivo, whose micellar structure is dissociated after being accumulated in the tissue(s) and/or site(s).

Abstract: By using a bed material for cell culture having a surface composed of two domains of domain A coated with a temperature-responsive polymer and domain B composed of any one or a combination of a domain coated with a polymer having high affinity with cells, a domain coated with the temperature-responsive polymer in an amount different from the amount of the temperature-responsive polymer of domain A, and a domain coated with a polymer which responds to a temperature different from the temperature to which domain A responds, a method for the co-culture of a plurality of kinds of cells which has heretofore been difficult becomes possible.

Abstract: It is intended to provide a cultured cell sheet with excellent tissue adherence and flexibility. The above object can be achieved by culturing cells on a support for cell culture in which a surface of a substrate is coated with a temperature-responsive polymer whose lower or upper critical solution temperature against water is in the range of 0 and 80° C. along with a surfactant protein or a crosslinking inhibitor and producing a cultured cell sheet by detaching it by setting the temperature of the culture to the upper critical solution temperature or higher or to the lower critical solution temperature or lower.

Abstract: A cultured periodontal ligament cell sheet is produced by a process comprising culturing cells on a cell culture support composed of a base material whose surface is coated with a temperature-responsive polymer having an upper limit or lower limit critical dissolution temperature in water of 0 to 80° C. under specified conditions, (1) regulating the temperature of a culture fluid to the upper limit critical dissolution temperature or higher or to the lower limit critical temperature or lower, (2) allowing a cultured periodontal ligament cell sheet resulting from the culturing to adhere to a carrier and (3) detaching the sheet intact together with the carrier. This cultured periodontal ligament cell sheet has a syndesmotic microstructure, exhibits extremely high bioadherence to the dental root surface and realizes high density transplantation of target cells and positive reconstruction of periodontal tissues.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a cell culture substrate capable of quickly forming a cell sheet and easily removing the cell sheet after formed. The present invention relates to a cell culture substrate for forming a cell sheet by culturing cells, comprising a plurality of projections each having a top face and depressions formed between the projections, in which the depressions each have an opening whose dimensions are too small for a cell to be cultured to enter and the cell sheet is removable. The present invention further relates to a method of preparing a cell sheet using the substrate and a cell sheet prepared by the method.

Abstract: A passivation film including a nitride-reformed layer that excludes chromium nitride (CrN) is formed on a surface of an austenitic stainless steel. The passivation film composed of chromium oxide functions as protection film against lead-free solder. As a result, the surface of stainless steel is hard to be corroded even when it contacts with the lead-free solder in its melted solder, thereby improving its corrosion resistance and its wear resistance substantially. In a case of SUS316 stainless steel, on an outermost surface of which the passivation film is formed, a period of lapsed time until corrosion of the stainless steel starts extends to about 500 hours as line Le shown in FIG. 4, and its corrosion depth indicates shallower one (20 through 25 ?m) as compared with the conventional one, thereby expecting that its durable year can be improved to an extent similar to that using a lead-filled solder, in order to obtain a stainless steel with enhanced corrosion resistance.

Abstract: An improved process for producing a regenerated corneal endothelial cell sheet, comprising the steps of allowing corneal endothelial cells collected from a tissue to be cultivated on a cell culture support having its surface covered with a polymer of which the hydrating force varies in a temperature range of 0-80° C., and after the culture, (1) adjusting the temperature of the culture solution to the temperature at which the polymer on the substrate surface is hydrated, (2) bringing the cultured corneal endothelial cell sheet into close contact with a carrier, and (3) detaching the sheet together with the carrier. The regenerated corneal endothelial cell sheet obtained by the process will adhere very well to living tissues.

Abstract: An anterior ocular segment related cell sheet or three-dimensional structure that have only a few structural defects as they have been recovered retaining the intercellular desmosome structure and the basement membrane-like protein between cell and substrate. The anterior ocular segment related cell sheet or three-dimensional structure is produced by a process comprising the steps of cultivating cells on a cell culture support comprising a substrate having its surface covered with a temperature responsive polymer having an upper or lower critical dissolution temperature of 0-80° C.

Abstract: Culture substrates, cell arrays, automatic chemical dispensers and assay systems necessary for conveniently assaying multiple chemicals such as drugs and toxic agents are provided. Herein used is a substrate for a high-density cell array characterized in that it has a surface comprising an ordered array of discrete microdomains coated with a cell adhesive polymer and successively surrounded by a domain coated with a cell non-adhesive hydrophilic polymer and then a domain coated with a cell non-adhesive highly hydrophobic material. This substrate for a high-density cell array and an assay system using it can greatly reduce side effects of drugs and dramatically improve the performance of drug therapy for diseases by optimizing the type and concentration of the drug used (e.g., an anticancer agent). The present invention provides a very useful technology that can also be used for drug development, environmental impact assessment and basic life science researches.

Abstract: Provided is a complex comprising cisplatin encapsulated therein in a form in which a chlorine ion thereof is ligand-exchanged with a carboxyl anion of a block copolymer comprising poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(glutamic acid). This complex can be a medicinal preparation to which a novel dosage form decreased in toxicity can be applied.