Method of culturing vascular smooth muscle cells, culture device and medical material obtained by the culture

Abstract

There is provided a method for culturing vascular smooth muscle cells while maintaining their normal function, and a culture device and regenerative medical material for the same. The method takes advantage of vascular smooth muscle cell recognition of elastin as an extracellular matrix. The invention provides a method for culturing vascular smooth muscle cells on elastin, a culture device having elastin anchored on the cell-growing surface, a culture device wherein the cell-growing surface is composed of an elastin molded article, and medical materials obtained by culturing vascular smooth muscle cells using such culture devices.

1 . A method of culturing vascular smooth muscle cells, characterized by culturing vascular smooth muscle cells on elastin. 
     
     
         2 . The culturing method of  claim 1 , wherein the vascular smooth muscle cells are cultured under static conditions in which the elastin neither expands nor contracts, until the vascular smooth muscle cells have become bound to the elastin, and then the vascular smooth muscle cells are cultured under dynamic conditions in which the elastin expands and contracts. 
     
     
         3 . A method of culturing vascular smooth muscle cells by selective growth of the vascular smooth muscle cells, characterized by culturing a mixture of vascular smooth muscle cells and other vascular cells on elastin. 
     
     
         4 . A culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells, having elastin anchored on a cell-growing surface. 
     
     
         5 . A culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 4 , wherein the elastin is anchored on a non-elastic material surface. 
     
     
         6 . A culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 4 , wherein the elastin is anchored on an elastic material surface. 
     
     
         7 . A culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 6 , wherein the elastic material is a silicon rubber sheet. 
     
     
         8 . A culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells, wherein the cell-growing surface is composed of a molded crosslinked elastin article. 
     
     
         9 . A cell culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 4 , wherein the cell-growing surface has a visible light or ultraviolet light transmittance of 50-100%. 
     
     
         10 . A medical material obtained by culturing vascular smooth muscle cells using a culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells that has elastin anchored on a cell-growing surface. 
     
     
         11 . A medical material obtained by culturing vascular smooth muscle cells on a molded crosslinked elastin article obtained by crosslinking water-soluble elastin. 
     
     
         12 . A cell culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 5 , wherein the cell-growing surface has a visible light or ultraviolet light transmittance of 50-100%. 
     
     
         13 . A cell culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 6 , wherein the cell-growing surface has a visible light or ultraviolet light transmittance of 50-100%. 
     
     
         14 . A cell culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 7 , wherein the cell-growing surface has a visible light or ultraviolet light transmittance of 50-100%. 
     
     
         15 . A cell culture device for vascular smooth muscle cells according to  claim 8 , wherein the cell-growing surface has a visible light or ultraviolet light transmittance of 50-100%.