News
25-November 2010
– LGC
and reinnervate collaborate to improve in vitro toxicity testing
for drug
discovery
LGC Standards launches reinnervate’s 3D cell culture scaffold,
alvetex®
LGC, an international
science-based company and market leader in analytical, forensic and
diagnostic services and reference standards, is partnering with
reinnervate, a UK biotechnology
company, to offer reinnervate’s novel three dimensional (3D) in
vitro culturing scaffold, alvetex®.
Manufactured from porous polystyrene, alvetex enables
3D cell culture with minimal alteration to routine laboratory
procedures, offering substantial benefits associated with improved
cell growth. In contrast to conventional 2D cell culture, where
cells are grown in flat sheets, alvetex provides a scaffold within
which cells can grow and signal one another, forming 3D structures
and retaining cell morphology which effectively mimics in vivo cell
growth.
The alvetex system is expected to have a revolutionary impact
across cell culture research and there has already been a
considerable body of peer reviewed publications* generated using
the alvetex scaffold. One application of this 3D scaffold is to
improve research into the toxicity of new pharmaceuticals which has
the potential to reduce the need for animal based testing. Through
studies funded by the
UK’s National Measurement System, LGC scientists have
demonstrated the ability of alvetex to imitate liver cells in the
corporeal environment with significantly higher expression of key
liver enzymes involved in drug metabolism and improved responses of
the cells to known cytotoxic compounds. The improved data
generation offered by reinnervate’s 3D technology for the drug
discovery and development process will be a key focus of LGC’s
partnership with reinnervate.
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of reinnervate, Professor
Stefan Przyborski commented, “Collaborating with LGC has given us
access to expertise and equipment that have been invaluable in
helping reinnervate achieve results that extend the application
range of our technology. This project has helped us in establishing
the alvetex technology and we are pleased our product is now
commercially available through LGC Standards”.
Jeffrey Anthony, Biologicals Business Unit Manager at LGC Standards said, “3D cell culture is widely
recognised as offering many advantages to cell biologists by
enabling cell behaviour which more effectively mimics in vivo
characteristics. The alvetex product now makes the benefits of 3D
culture routinely available to research laboratories across the
world and we are delighted to enable access to this important
technology in partnership with reinnervate”.
Alvetex has been launched in a 12-well culture plate format and
is available now from LGC Standards (www.lgcstandards.com) For prices
and ordering information, please email: cell@lgcstandards.com or tel:
+44 (0)20 8943 8489.
*(1) Fox B.C., Devonshire A.S., Schutte M.E., Foy C.A., Minguez
J., Przyborski S., Maltman D., Bokhari M., Marshall D., Validation
of reference gene stability for APAP hepatotoxicity studies in
different in vitro systems and identification of novel potential
toxicity biomarkers, Toxicol. In Vitro, 24(7): 1962-70,
(2010).
(2) Carnachan R.J., Bokhari M., Maatta, A., Cameron N.R.,
Przyborski S.A., Emulsion-templated porous scaffolds enabling three
dimensional cell culture, Polymer Preprints, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 49:
418-419, (2008).
(3) Bokhari M., Carnachan R., Przyborski S.A., Cameron N.R., Effect
of synthesis parameters on emulsion-templated porous polymer
formation and evaluation for 3D cell culture scaffolds, J.
Materials. Chem., 17: 4088-94, (2007).
(4) Bokhari M., Carnachan R., Cameron N.R., Przyborski S.A.,
Culture of HepG2 liver cells on three dimensional polystyrene
scaffolds enhances cell structure and function during toxicological
challenge, J. Anat., 211: 567-76, (2007).
(5) Bokhari M., Carnachan R., Cameron N.R., Przyborski, S.A.,
Novel cell culture device enabling three-dimensional cell growth
and improved cell function, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 354:
1095-1100, (2007).
- Ends -
Notes to
editors