Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd.

Reprocell, Inc.

Unisel Co., Ltd.

Hitachi-High-Technologies Corporation

Atsushi Suzuki

Kenichi Takahashi

Kenji Teshigawara

Takayuki Noda

Yasuyuki Yamazaki

Kenichi Yagi

Hironori Gouda

Naruhiko Onishi

Hiromitsu Nakauchi

Hideki Taniguchi

Takeya Dei

Noboru Watanabe

Yoshiyuki Tansei

Katashi Fukao

Provided is a nonwoven fabric structure containing an odd-shaped fiber. The odd-shaped fiber has bubbles inside and has a cross-sectional shape that is an irregular, non-circular cross-section. Further, it is preferable that the cross-sectional shape of the odd-shaped fiber changes in the fiber length direction, the odd-shaped fiber has a crystallinity of 40% or less, and the odd-shaped fiber is made of at least two kinds of thermoplastic resins. It is also preferable that that the nonwoven fabric structure contains a heat fusible fiber, the odd-shaped fiber is present in the form of a net-like fiber sheet, and the odd-shaped fiber is in the form of short fibers. In addition, a method for producing such a nonwoven fabric structure is a method in which a thermoplastic resin containing a foaming agent is extruded through a slit die to give an odd-shaped fiber having bubbles inside, followed by three-dimensional shaping.

Nonwoven fabric structure and method for producing the same

The present invention provides clonal pluripotent hepatic stem cells using flow cytometry and in vitro single-cell-based assays. These cells possess multilineage differentiation potential and self-renewing capability. These cells may be clonally propagated in culture, to continuously produce hepatocytes and cholangiocytes as descendants while maintaining primitive stem cells. When expanded cells are transplanted into recipient animals, they morphologically and functionally differentiated into hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, with reconstitution of hepatocyte and bile duct structures. Furthermore, these cells differentiated into pancreatic ductal and acinar cells or intestinal epithelial cells when transplanted into pancreas or duodenal wall. Thus, the self-renewing multipotent stem cells persist in the developing mouse liver and can be induced to become cells of other organs of endodermal origin under appropriate microenvironment, providing new insight into therapies for diseases of the digestive system.

Self-renewing pluripotent hepatic stem cells

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Atsushi Suzuki