Co-culture of glomerular epithelial cells and mesangial cells on collagen-gauze-fiber gel

A novel collagen-gauze-fiber gel was created as a scaffold for the co-culture of renal glomerular epithelial cells and mesangial cells at its opposite sides. This gauze-fiber-gel provides a mimic environment like that of renal glomeruli in vivo. The cell morphology, cell growth and cell viability were investigated and the results showed that this novel scaffold maintains cell growth and cell viability without changing cell morphology for more than 3 weeks. Interestingly, glomerular epithelial cells co-cultured with mesangial cells on the gauze-fiber gel resulted in the polarity formation which usually appears on the normal epithelial cells existing at glomerular basement membrane in vivo, but seldom appears on the epithelial cells when cultured in vitro.