A novel tool of temperature-responsive cell culture surfaces and its application to matrix biology

Matrix biology has one characteristic feature which is not covered by traditional biochemistry or molecular biology. Matrix biology inevitably includes solid materials for the alignment of cells in tissue architectures. One critical problem to overcome for elucidation of the consolidated structure and function is limitation in solubilization of the extracellular matrix (ECM) components. In this minireview, we introduce a unique novel cell culture dish developed by us. The dish surface shows similar hydrophobicity as normal polystyrene tissue culture dishes at 37°C. When the temperature is reduced below 32°C, the surface rapidly hydrates and becomes hydrophilic. Therefore, by only reducing temperature viable cultured cells and intact deposited ECM are recovered from the temperature-responsive culture dish surface with no requirement of digestive enzymes or denaturing treatments. The possibility that cell culture system utilizing this unique novel culture surface provides a useful tool to investigate solid ECM is discussed.