Co-culture of intestinal epithelial and stromal cells in 3D collagen-based environments.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the co-culture of established intestinal epithelial cell lines and stromal cells in a series of collagen-based environments for production of tissue-engineered intestinal epithelium for in vitro investigations.


METHODS
Intestinal epithelial cells were co-cultured with fibroblasts on a range of supporting collagen matrices including commercially available Promogran and on collagen-based gels.


RESULTS
Epithelial growth was achieved with one combination of vimentin-expressing stromal and cytokeratin-expressing intestinal epithelial cells grown on collagen gels supplemented with Matrigel, and held at an air-liquid interface.


CONCLUSIONS
Collagen-based gels can support the co-culture of intestinal epithelial and stromal cells resulting in the growth of an epithelium that has some morphological similarity to normal intestinal tissue.
University of Bristol, UK. mark.viney@bristol.ac.uk
M E
ME
Viney
A J
AJ
Bullock
M J
MJ
Day
S
S
MacNeil
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D003094:Collagen / Q000502:physiology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
D003094:Collagen