Rapid and Direct Cell-to-Cell Adherence Using Avidin-Biotin Binding System: Large Aggregate Formation in Suspension Culture and Small Tissue Element Formation Having a Precise Microstructure Using Optical Tweezers

Nobuhiko Kojima, Ken Miura, Tomoki Matsuo, Hidenari Nakayama, Kikuo Komori, Shoji Takeuchi, and Yasuyuki Sakai

Effectively organizing isolated cells to tissue elements having an appropriate microstructure is a fundamental issue in future tissue engineering, but biological cell-to-cell adhesion is too weak to assemble single cells directly. In order to overcome the difficulty, we applied an Avidin-Biotin Binding System (ABBS) to cell surfaces, and avidinylated and biotinylated cells could mutually bind in the short time they were mixed together. Unlike conventional intact cells, ABBS helped make larger spheroids. Interestingly, avidinylated and biotinylated cell adherence occurred within 1 sec using laser trapping, enabling single cell manipulation. We showed precise, direct single-cell-based tissue assembly using ABBS and optical tweezers, followed by damage-free tissue culture. The combination of ABBS and single cell manipulation has considerable potential for use in application such as tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and drug screening system.

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