Development of a Cartridge-type Cell Culture Device Combined with Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Coated Substrates

抄録

Cell subculture processes, such as medium exchange and cell detachment, are essential steps for maintaining cells healthy during performing experiments. Simplification of subculture processes would benefit cells' viability by reducing the number of steps performed by researchers, consequently minimizing cell stress. In particular, it is considered important to reduce the damage caused by the enzymatic treatment to detach adherent cells. We developed a new subculture device to replace conventional enzymatic treatments with the use of a thermoresponsive substrate in this work. Thermoresponsive substrates were prepared coating poly N-isopropylacrylamide with different concentrations onto glass substrates pre-coated with a silane-coupling agent. Prepared thermoresponsive substrates were evaluated by cell proliferation and detachment tests as well as the measurement of contact angles with respect to different pNIPAAm concentrations. Developed culture device was then evaluated by performing cell subculture, which results in achieving the cell proliferation and detachment rates over 80%. It was confirmed the use of a cartridge-type cell culture device allows faster and easier cell detachment in subculture process. We finally confirmed that the feasibility of developed cell culture device for its potential applications in cell related researches.