Johanna Lampe1, Johana Kuncova-Kallio1
1UPM Kymmene Oyj, Helsinki, Finland
INTRODUCTION TO NANOFIBRILLAR CELLULOSE (NFC) HYDROGEL CONCLUSIONS
The hydrogel is shear-thinning and therefore can be readily dispensed, printed, injected without the need for cross-linking. The viscosity can be simply tuned by dilution. The material is highly biocompatible (200 protocols including primary cells, also tested in ISO10993). Here, SEM image of fibroblasts (*) adhering (arrows) to the nanofibers (#). J. Sheard GrowDex® is room temperature stable, allowing automation of assays. GrowDex is proven to work with many dispensing and pipetting robots. The biomaterial is inert and preserves the immune response of primary cells. The image shows that immune cells are retained in patient derived breast cancer explant cultures. Ref. P. Munne
REPLACING THE INVISIBLE ANIMALS WITH WOOD
While implementing 3R’s, many focus on the visible animals – needed for in vivo tests. However, many animals are used in vitro, e.g. in FBS, and many assays rely on a matrix isolated from mice [6]. On average, for a 96 well plate 5 ml of animal-derived matrix stock [6] or 3.3 ml of wood-derived matrix stock are needed. UPM birch-based nanofibrillar cellulose (NFC) only consists of wood and purified water. The GrowDex® hydrogels do not contain any animal or human-derived material. The production follows ISO13485 standard.