The long term in vivo biocompatibility is an essential feature for the design and development of sustained drug release carriers. In the recent intraocular drug delivery studies, hydrogels were suggested as sustained release carriers. The biocompatibility test for these hydrogels, however, was commonly performed only through in vitro cell culture examination, which is insufficient before the cl...

Loss of cell-cell adhesion in carcinoma cells may be an important step in the acquisition of an invasive, metastatic phenotype. We have examined the expression of the epithelial-specific cell adhesion molecule uvomorulin (E-cadherin, cell-CAM 120/80, L-CAM) in human breast cancer cell lines. We find that fibroblastoid, highly invasive, vimentin-expressing breast cancer cell lines do not express...

AIM To examine the effect of various components of extracellular matrix (ECM) on acquisition of drug resistance to taxol and camptothecin by breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. METHODS Cancer cells were cultured on bovine serum albumin (BSA), vitronectin (VN), fibronectin (FN), collagen type I (COL-I), or Matrigel-coated plates with or without taxol (paclitaxel) or camptothecin treatment. The e...

In general, inflammatory cells cross basement membranes by producing proteinases. To investigate the role of proteinases in eosinophil basement membrane migration, we studied peripheral blood eosinophils in Matrigel-coated chemotaxis chambers. Electron microscopy showed degradation of the Matrigel layer when eosinophils, added to the upper chamber, transmigrated the membrane in the presence of ...

Interactions between tumor cells and basement membranes represent a critical step in the progression of neoplasia and in the metastatic process. Reconstituted basement membrane matrix, matrigel, has been recently used with the aim of developing an in vitro assay of tumor cell invasiveness. We have extended these studies by comparing the invasiveness of a large series of normal and malignant epi...

Artificial bones have often used for bone regeneration due to their strength, but they cannot provide an adequate environment for cell penetration and settlement. We therefore attempted to explore various materials that may allow the cells to penetrate and engraft in bone defects. PuraMatrix is a self-assembling peptide scaffold that produces a nanoscale environment allowing both cellular penet...

Maintenance of long term culture and conventional xenografting of early B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells is most difficult. Matrigel, a solubilized attachment matrix shown to aid growth of anchorage dependent solid tumors, was studied in heterotransplantation. Material for xenografting was derived from 5 patient bone marrow aspirates and 5 cell lines previously established and maint...

Endometrial cancer is characterized by alterations in the stromal cells and the supporting extracellular matrix in addition to the intrinsic alterations of the malignant epithelial cells. We have developed a cell culture model that demonstrates the role of stromal cells in the regulation of proliferation, hormone responsiveness, and differentiation of an endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line (Is...

The aim of this study was to explore an effective method for the repair of cartilage defects using chitosan/glycerophosphate (C/GP) gel- and Matrigel-engineered human bone morphogenetic protein 7 (hBMP7)-expressing chondrocytes. Rabbit chondrocytes were obtained, cultured in vitro and transfected with an adenovirus containing hBMP7 and green fluorescent protein (Ad-hBMP7-GFP). The expression of...

INTRODUCTION The importance of extra cellular matrix (ECM) in development and function of different cells has been reported but little is known about its role in human endometrial epithelial cells. The aim of the present study was to examine effects of artificial ECM (Matrigel) and progesterone on the function and morphology of human endometrial epithelial cells in vitro. METHODS Endometrial ...