초록 |
Recently, thermosensitive hydrogels, N-acyl glycol chitosans, has been studied for 3D cell culture applications to overcome the limitations of conventional methods which require laborious processes and sophisticated equipments. Herein, we synthesized N-octanoyl glycol chitosans (OGCs) with different degrees of N-octanoylation (DO) by changing the feed molar ratio, their thermosensitive and spheroid-forming properties characterized. OGCs were demonstrated thermo-reversible sol-gel transition in a temperature range of 23~60oC, depending on the concentration and DO. The OGC-coated petri-dishes were prepared and evaluated for cell spheroid formation using lung fibroblast cells. The cultured cells were spontaneously formed spherical aggregates within 24 hrs. The spheroids showed a uniform size distribution and were maintained for more than 14 days. These results suggest that OGCs could be useful as a new thermo-sensitive material for 3D cell culture system and other biomedical applications. |