NATURAL BIOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR CELL CULTURES

Some eukaryotic cells require supports in order to grow and generate an environment in vitro that is more similar to that in vivo. Said supports can be cellular or acellular. On the one hand, the use of cell supports cannot be controlled specifically, neither the composition of the culture medium nor the growth dynamics of the support cells. On the other hand, acellular supports only partially reproduce biological 3D structures, some even show limitations in terms of biocompatibility. Currently the main limitation of acellular supports is their lack of similarity with natural extracellular matrices at the level of structure and composition. In addition, they have laborious synthesis protocols, which makes the product quite expensive. The proposed invention consists of a murine 3D extracellular matrix generated from an immortalized cell line obtained from embryonic epicardium (EPIC). Said matrix retains structure, composition and natural properties very similar to both embryonic and adult cardiac extracellular matrix, and can be used as an acellular support for eukaryotic cell cultures alone or in combination with gelatins and compatible acellular supports, like jelly.

Advantages

Compared to existing supports, the newly developed support generates a biocompatible three-dimensional structure of animal origin. These characteristics give it demonstrable advantages compared to other acellular supports, since it helps to improve the growth and proliferation of different cell types, such as endothelial cells. In addition, the technical procedures for their synthesis and isolation are cheaper than those currently used for those offered on the market. Finally, it should be noted that since it is synthesized from an immortalized cell line, the variability between different production batches is reduced and the sacrifice of animals is not required to obtain it.

Uses and Applications

The present invention is framed within the biotechnological sector and, more specifically, in the field of cell culture. Its application is mainly focused on its use as a biocompatible acellular support of animal origin for the growth of different cell types in research laboratories, making it especially useful for studies related to cell proliferation in processes of angiogenesis, expansion of progenitor cells and the like.