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MAPTrix TM biomimetics from amsbio: Innovation in cell culture for cancer, stem cell
and regenerative medicine research
Alex Sim
AMSBIO
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a natural substrate/scaffold that has been widely used in cell
culture to enhance cellular adhesion. Cellular adhesion to ECM proteins is a fundamental feature
of cell development, maintenance of tissue organization, and many pathologicalb conditions. It
is, therefore, crucial to understand the adhesion process in order to study cellular functions or
tissue engineering applications.
Most experiments require cells to proliferate, differentiate and migrate on the substrate. Cell
adhesion to ECM ligands is of growing importance in studying invasion, migration and wound
healing.
The immobilization of short peptides such as RGD on synthetic or natural materials may
produce biofunctional surfaces that bind adhesion receptors and promote cell adhesion,
however, this conventional chemistry approach is time-consuming, inconvenient, and lacks
reproducibility.
To overcome these problems, AMSBIO will present MAPTrix TM , a series of “ECM-like”
biomimetic surfactant polymers that exhibit quantitative control over the proliferation and
migrational properties of various human cells.
MAPTrix TM technology has been used to produce:
- Direct ECM substitutes,
- A basement membrane non-animal protein incorporating peptides that mimic the biological
activity of the large, natural growth factors,
- A user-defined and in situ formable hydrogel system called MAPTrix HyGel TM which
generates three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix environments for 3D cell culture
applications.
The Mussel Adhesive Protein based matrix (MAPTrix TM ) line of products are coating
reagents with genetically incorporated bioactive peptides. They mimic the extracellular matrix
(ECM) activity of collagen, fibronectin, laminin, and vitronectin proteins and promote cell
attachment, spreading and growth. A MAPTrix TM surface coating offers an animal-free,
chemically defined attachment and growth surface that provides a highly controlled environment
for cell culture and tissue engineering applications.
The presentation will focus on 3D cell culture without the need for Matrigel and similar animalderived
substrates in cell culture experiments. Changing the way we consider cell culture is
crucial to understanding the adhesion process in order to study cellular functions or tissue
engineering applications. In particular, promotion of attachment and spreading of many normal
and stem cells including epithelial, endothelial, hepatocyte and mesenchymal stem cells will be
covered.
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