Detachment of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Their Cell Sheets Using pH-Responsive CaCO₃ Particles

Abstract

Cell sheet technology contributes to advances in tissue engineering. Although various approaches to control cell adhesion and detachment to a culture dish have been devised for the purpose of recovering an intact cell sheet so far, they all have disadvantages in application. Therefore, the search for superior cell sheet detachment technology is still ongoing. The present study describes detachment of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) and their cell sheets via decomposition of pH-responsive CaCO₃ particles that are precipitated on a culture dish. A concern in this detachment technology is harmful effects of the acidic environment, which is needed to decompose the CaCO₃ particles, on cell viability. The time course of detachment behavior showed that the hMSC sheet was detached in a shorter time than individual cells. Shortening of the operation time for detachment suppressed cell death in the acidic environment. Thus, the hMSC sheet was successfully detached without cell death.

Fig. 1 A schematic illustration of cell detachment via decomposition of CaCO₃ particles precipitated on a culture dish.