Toyoda Gosei uses expertise benefiting medical field

Auto supplier Toyoda Gosei has developed a urethane microfoam film for pharmaceutical drug development, using material knowledge developed through use of urethane for steering wheels.

The Japanese supplier did not specify how it translated urethane film for auto production into a film for the medical industry, but disclosed the work during the annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments.

The film allows cells to be cultivated on a structure that resembles living tissues. Toyoda Gosei claims that the technology has potential as an alternative to animal experiments, including pharmacokinetic studies.

The urethane films allows two different types of cells to be cultivated within a two-layered structure that more closely resembles adjacent living tissues, such as blood vessels and the intestinal epithelium. It relies on the film's ability to separate the cells, but still allow them to interact with each other through U-shaped pores. The pore size can be controlled down to the micrometer level.

The bilayer structure will enable the movement of a drug to be examined in individual cell layers that resemble living tissue, the company said. As well as having the potential to replace some animal experiments, it may help accelerate the process of identifying potential candidate molecules.