Titanium Culture Vessel Capable of Controlling Culture Temperature for Evaluation of Cell Thermotolerance

Surgery, radiation therapy, and chemical therapy have been reported as the main treatments for cancer, which is one of the deadliest reported diseases. However, because of the high invasiveness of patients, cancer hyperthermia has been studied as a non-invasive treatment. Hyperthermia uses a difference in thermal tolerance between normal and cancer cells and provides an affected part thermal stimulation to kill cancer cells selectively. To develop effective conditions for hyperthermia, an in vitro study to evaluate the thermal tolerance is required. However, because the existing cell culture vessels cannot control the culture temperature, genuine thermal tolerance of cells cannot be investigated appropriately. To reveal the critical temperature proper for hyperthermia, we developed a culture device controlling culture temperature. With the developed device, culture temperature was regulated considerably more quickly than the conventional method with the existing vessels, which enabled us to study the thermal tolerance of cells appropriately. For the control of culture temperature, the device has a titanium culture substrate, where a Peltier element is adhered. Because the biocompatibility of the device was confirmed, the difference in thermal tolerance between normal and cancer cells was investigated using the developed device as well as normal human dermal fibroblasts and Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 as model cell species. Therefore, it was confirmed that cancer cells were more sensitive to thermal stimulation than normal cells, which was qualitatively consistent with previous studies. Thus, our developed device can be used to investigate the thermal tolerance of each cell species, which will contribute to the development of cancer hyperthermia.