METHOD OF PRESERVING TISSUE VIABILITY DURING MECHANICAL SEPARATION PROCESS

摘要

The present invention provides a method of preserving tissue viability during separation, the method including placing intact tissue in a cell culture medium. The cell culture medium includes at least one nitric oxide inhibitor. The tissue is mechanically separated into a plurality of physiologic tissue units, each unit maintaining physiologic cell-to-cell connections within the unit. The mechanical separation step may comprise cutting the tissue into slices and tearing the slices of tissue into a plurality of tissue units. Thereafter, the tissue units may be embedded in a hydrogel matrix for storage.