Cell culture substrates and methods of making such substrates

摘要

Cell culture substrates comprising dried films of native fibrillar collagen produced by a method in which collagen fibers are hydrolyzed in acid, solubilized, and reformed as gels on porous surfaces under non-physiologic salt conditions to produce large fibers with the striations characteristic of collagen fibers found in vivo. The gels are collapsed onto the porous surfaces by drawing the interfibril fluid out of the gel through the underside of the porous surface and then dried to form films. Dried collagen films made in this manner retain native fibrillar collagen structure and excellent diffusion characteristics. Native fibrillar collagen films produced according to the methods of the invention are useful as cell culture substrates. They have particularly advantageous properties for growth and differentiation of epithelial cells. This effect is synergistically enhanced by addition of butyric acid as a differentiation inducing agent.