Patent ID: 8647867

Claim:
A method for culturing a primary cell in a cell culture, comprising: providing differentiated functional primary cells selected from the group consisting of porcine pancreatic islets and human pancreatic islets; culturing the differentiated functional primary cells using an insert and a self-assembling peptide hydrogel of SEQ ID NO:1; evaluating the differentiated functional primary cells in the cell culture based on pancreatic islet morphology criteria; assigning evaluation values of 1 to 5 points for each of the criteria consisting of: shape having evaluation values of 1 point for flat shape, 2 points for approximately flat shape, 3 points for irregularly spherical shape, 4 points for approximately spherical shape, and 5 points for spherical shape; border integrity having evaluation values of 1 point for irregular border, 2 points for approximately irregular border, 3 points for somewhat well-rounded border, 4 points for approximately well-rounded border and 5 points for well-rounded border; cell integrity having evaluation values of 1 point for fragmented integrity, 2 points for approximately fragmented integrity, 3 points for somewhat solid/compact integrity, 4 points for approximately solid/compact integrity, and 5 points for solid/compact integrity; and cell diameter having evaluation values of 1 point for smaller than 100 μm diameter (all <100 μm), 2 points for 100 to 150 μm diameter, 3 points for 125 to 175 μM diameter, 4 points for 150 to 200 μm diameter, and 5 points for larger than 200 μm for at least 10% of individual cultured pancreatic islets (>10%>200 μm); and totaling the evaluation value points resulting in a sum evaluation value of 4 to 25 points.