A Method of Culturing Human Keratinocytes

PATENT STATUS

PCT application disclosing this invention was filed in May 2018.

 

OVERVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY ON OFFER

A xeno-free and chemically defined method for treatment of burns and chronic wounds.

 

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Burn injuries remain a huge clinical problem as autologous donor sites become insufficient to provide primary cover for wound closure when the total body surface area of burn exceeds 40%. The gold standard method to culture human epidermal keratinocytes for severe burn treatment uses both murine 3T3 fibroblasts as feeder cells as well as bovine serum. This system carries risk of exposing human cell culture to animal pathogens and is therefore not ideal for human treatments. This is also the reason why this current method of cultured epithelial autografts is limited to critical burn cases only.

 

Our technology provides a novel system for culturing human epidermal keratinocytes in a completely xeno-free and chemically defined medium. By using pure laminin matrices, that are normally present in the skin basal membrane, and chemically defined, serum-free medium, our method supports keratinocytes survival without the aid of feeder cells and enables robust expansion of adult human skin keratinocytes. Our researchers have demonstrated that our laminin system is comparable to the 3T3-J2 co-culture system in terms of basal markers’ profile, colony-forming efficiency and the ability to form normal stratified epidermal structure in both in-vitro and in-vivo models. Our technology allows for cultured cell products to be used safely in the management of minor burns and chronic wounds (since the system is xeno-free and fully defined).

 

Professor Karl Tryggvason’s lab at Duke-NUS Medical School and Dr. Alvin Chua at Singapore General Hospital have shown success in vivo and are preparing to enter human clinical trials.

 

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

Faster and safer way to treat both minor and severe burns and chronic wounds.

 

KEY BENEFIT

This method is xeno-free and chemically defined and requires a shorter duration to grow keratinocytes in comparison to existing/conventional methods.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Tjin M., Chua A., Mora A., Chong Li., Tang P., Harmston N., Cai Z., Petretto E., Tan B., Tryggvason K. “Biologically relevant laminin as chemically defined and fully human platform for human epidermal keratinocyte culture” Nature Communications (2018).

 

INVENTOR BIO

Karl Tryggvason

CONTACT

Please email us for further enquiries: cted@duke-nus.edu.sg