Engineering systems for the generation of patterned co-cultures for controlling cell-cell interactions.
BACKGROUND
Inside the body, cells lie in direct contact or in close proximity to other cell types in a tightly controlled architecture that often regulates the resulting tissue function. Therefore, tissue engineering constructs that aim to reproduce the architecture and the geometry of tissues will benefit from methods of controlling cell-cell interactions with microscale resolution.


OBJECTIVE
We discuss the use of microfabrication technologies for generating patterned co-cultures. In addition, we categorize patterned co-culture systems by cell type and discuss the implications of regulating cell-cell interactions in the resulting biological function of the tissues.


CONCLUSIONS
Patterned co-cultures are a useful tool for fabricating tissue engineered constructs and for studying cell-cell interactions in vitro, because they can be used to control the degree of homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell contact. In addition, this approach can be manipulated to elucidate important factors involved in cell-matrix interactions.


CONCLUSIONS
Patterned co-culture strategies hold significant potential to develop biomimetic structures for tissue engineering. It is expected that they would create opportunities to develop artificial tissues in the future. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Nanotechnologies - Emerging Applications in Biomedicine.
Kaji
Hirokazu
H
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Camci-Unal
Gulden
G
Langer
Robert
R
Khademhosseini
Ali
A
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D002450:Cell Communication; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D055616:Microtechnology; D023822:Tissue Engineering
D001672:Biocompatible Materials