Thanks to the achievements of science and technology an increasing number of biological and medical tests will no longer need animal tests but can be simulated in cell-biological labs at tissue models. The toxicological harmlessness of chemicals and cosmetics as well as the efficiency and the safety of new drugs and therapies can today be tested on 3-dimensional tissue models which are artificially generated from human cells.

Development of cryoconservable tissue models

Since 2005 we have been establishing tissue models for the testing und development of protocols for gentle cryopreservation of human tissues. The main focus are 3-dimensional scaffolds made of collagen, which are populated with a maximum of three primary cell types and cultivated to a matured tissue patch. The objective of the development is not reproduction of the natural process but the manufacturing of patches with tissue-like thickness and cell density, whose diffusion resistance and thermal conductivity is adequate to the thermal properties of the emulated biological tissue.

The in-vitro achieved results could be transferred directly to the cryopreservation of endogenous tissue. Among dermal und mucosal models based on the 3-dimensional collagen scaffold populated with cells, we have a mechanical tough bone model, which is generated through differentiation of primary human fibroblasts in a high porous substrate made of sintered calcium phosphates.

Competitive in-vitro tests for comprehensive replacement of animal testing

Due to the complex cultivation, the limited transport capacity and the shelf life, in-vitro test-systems with artificial tissue neither gained currency nor were able to compete economically with classical animal testing. Our new focus in the field of tissue engineering is the development of transportable and storable in-vitro test systems for the assessment of toxicity in 3-dimensional human tissues. Through a cell culture free manufacturing this assays are very cost-effective and as they are cryopreserved, they have almost unlimited transport and storage capabilities. This enables unrestricted marketing and reproducible in-vitro cytotoxicity tests in every interested test laboratory. At our cryo compentence center the future begins today.

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