Publications

A disease model of kidney fibrosis was developed using 3-D Life Dextran hydrogel by co-culturing human kidney epithelial cells and human fibroblasts in two layers of hydrogels of different biomimetic modifications. The work shows a unique and successful model system for screening of new molecules capable to interfere and modulate the dialogue between epithelial and mesenchymal cells. Application: target identification and drug evaluation. Methods used: immunofluorescent staining and fluorescence imaging, drug administration, transmission electron microscopy, proliferation assay, RNA extraction for gene expression array.