Cultrex® Basement Membrane Extract (BME) is a soluble form of basement
membrane purified from Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm (EHS) tumor. The extract
gels at 37°C to form a reconstituted basement membrane. The major
components of BME include laminin, collagen IV, entactin, and heparin
sulfate proteoglycan. BME can be used in a multiple applications, under a
variety of cell culture conditions, formaintaining growth or promoting
differentiation of primary endothelial, epithelial, smooth muscle and
stem cells. BME can also be utilized in cell attachment, neurite
outgrowth, angiogenesis, in vitro cell invasion and in vivo tumorigenicity assays.
Recently
we have developed two additional formulations of Cultrex® BME known as
Cultrex® BME Type 2 and Cultrex® BME Type 3. Cultrex® BME Type 2
provides a proprietary formulation that is higher in tensile strength
when compared to our original BME, while Cultrex® BME Type 3 is
physiologically aligned with the in vivo solid tumors environment and is
recommended for xenografts and other in vivo applications.
There
are many applications for Cultrex® BME, which require different
thicknesses and concentrations. In general, BME at a protein
concentration ≥ 10 mg/ml is used for differentiation studies of primary
cells. For applications such as endothelial cell formation of
capillary-like structures (Tube Formation Assay), the differentiation of
rat aorta tissue into capillary-like structures (Aortic Ring Assay),
epithelial organoid formation, or tumor organoid formation, a thick gel
is needed. Some applications, such as propagation of primary cells,
require a thin layer coating and not a thick gel; therefore, the thin
layer method should be used.