Biocompatible Polymer Micro-Arrays for Cellular Growth, Stem Cell Manipulation, Cellular Release and Identification and High-Content Screening

随着基于细胞的疗法的显著增加，细胞的生长是一个日益重要的研究领域。其范围从用于移植的皮肤细胞的生长，到基于干细胞的疗法，再到用于生产细胞衍生疗法(例如抗体等)的细胞的生长。然而，并不是所有的细胞都可以方便地培养，即使是那些可以培养的细胞，也往往很难从培养表面释放出来。细胞通常生长在载体上，载体上覆盖着聚合物，以帮助细胞结合和生长。然而，在这一领域，新聚合物的发现是有限的，对特定聚合物的了解或优化很少。这里提出的是使用高通量方法来制备聚合物文库(通常制造10-20个聚合物所需的时间将制造4,000个聚合物)，然后同时观察所有的聚合物。这将通过将每一种聚合物点在一张玻璃片上(4000个聚合物斑点)并将细胞添加到这个所谓的阵列中来实现。通过这种方式，将(一次性)查看所有4000种聚合物，并通过(自动)查看所有4000个斑点来确定哪些聚合物支持细胞生长，从而确定对细胞友好的聚合物。聚合物在冷却时可以改变其性质。因此，这4,000种聚合物将在37摄氏度的温度下与细胞进行处理，并确定细胞生长的地方。玻璃片随后将被冷却，并识别释放细胞的聚合物(所谓的热响应性聚合物)。因此，这将允许快速鉴定聚合物的细胞相容性和释放性。待研究的细胞将包括干细胞以及传统上难以培养的细胞。

The growing of cells is an increasingly important area of research, with the marked increase in cell based therapeutics. These range from the growth of skin cells for grafting, to stem cells based therapies to the growth of cells for the production of cell derived therapeutics (e.g. antibodies etc.). However not all cells can be conveniently grown, while even those that can, are often difficult to release from the culture surface.Cells are usually grown on supports, which are coated with a polymer to aid cell binding and growth. However, the discovery of new polymers in this area is limited with little under-standing or optimisation of the specific polymer. What is proposed here is to use high-throughput methods to prepare libraries of polymers (4,000 polymers will be made in the time it usually takes to make 10-20 polymers) and then to look at all the polymers simultaneously. This will be achieved by spotting each of the polymers onto one glass slide (4,000 spots of polymer) and adding cells to this so-called array. In this manner, all 4,000 polymers will be looked at (in one go) and polymers will be identified that are cell-friendly by looking at all 4,000 spots (automatically) to see which support cell growth.Polymers can change their properties when cooled down. Therefore, the 4,000 polymers will be treated with cells at 37oC and the polymers identified where cell growth is taking place. The glass slide will then be cooled down and polymers identified that release cells (the so called thermo-responsive polymers). This will therefore allow polymers to be rapidly identified for both cellular compatibility and release. Cells to be studied will include stem cells as well as cells that are traditionally difficult to culture.