Publisher's Synopsis
This book is the first to summarize new technologies for engineered cell manipulation. The contents focus on control of cellular functions by nanomaterials and control of three-dimensional cell-cell interactions. Control of cellular functions is important for cell differentiation, maturation, and activation, which generally are controlled by the addition of soluble cytokines or growth factors into cell culture dishes. Target antigen molecules can be efficiently delivered to the cytosol of the dendritic cells using the nanoparticle technique described here, and cellular functions such as dendritic cell maturation can be controlled easily and with precision. This book describes basic preparation of the nanoparticles, activation control of dendritic cells, immune function control, and in vivo application for various vaccination systems. The second type of control,that of cell-cell interaction, is important for tissue engineering in order to develop three-dimensional cellular constructs. To achieve in vitro engineering of three-dimensional human tissue constructs, cell-cell interaction must be controlled in three dimensions, but typical biological cell manipulation technique cannot accomplish this task. An engineered cell manipulation technique is necessary. In this book the authors describe the fabrication of nanofilms onto cell surfaces, development of three-dimensional cellular multilayers, and various applications of the cellular multilayers as three-dimensional human models. This important work will be highly informative for researchers and students in the fields of materials science, polymer science, biomaterials, medicinal science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and biology.
