UV/ozone surface modification combined with atmospheric pressure plasma irradiation for cell culture plastics to improve pluripotent stem cell culture.

Culturing pluripotent stem cells effectively requires substrates coated with feeder cell layers or cell-adhesive matrices. It is difficult to employ pluripotent stem cells as resources for regenerative medicine due to risks of culture system contamination by animal-derived factors, or the large costs associated with the use of adhesive matrices. To enable a coating-free culture system, we focused on UV/ozone surface modification and atmospheric pressure plasma treatment for polystyrene substrates, to improve adhesion and proliferation of pluripotent stem cells.

Cost-effective culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells using UV/ozone-modified culture plastics with reduction of cell-adhesive matrix coating.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are considered to be one of the most promising cell resources for regenerative medicine. HiPSCs usually maintain their pluripotency when they are cultured on feeder cell layers or are attached to a cell-adhesive extracellular matrix. In this study, we developed a culture system based on UV/ozone modification for conventional cell culture plastics to generate a suitable surface condition for hiPSCs.

Feeder-free culture for mouse induced pluripotent stem cells by using UV/ozone surface-modified substrates.

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), especially induced PSCs (iPSCs), have great potential for regenerative medicine. Conventionally, PSCs are cultured and expanded efficiently on feeder cell layers or on cell-adhesive matrices. Large-scale iPSC expansion in an undifferentiated state without laborious culturing procedures and high manufacturing costs for the adhesive matrix is urgently required to integrate iPSCs into therapeutic applications.

Improvement of adhesion and proliferation of mouse embryonic stem cells cultured on ozone/UV surface-modified substrates.

Culturing pluripotent stem cells effectively requires feeder cell layers or cell adhesion matrix coating. However, the feeder cell layers or animal-derived factors have to be removed to apply the pluripotent stem cells as resources for regenerative medicine. To enable xeno-free culture conditions, we focused on the UV/ozone surface treatment technique for polystyrene cell culture substrates to improve the adhesion and proliferation of pluripotent stem cells.