Encapsulation of Huh-7 cells within alginate-poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid microspheres

Abstract

Novel calcium alginate poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid microspheres (Ca-alg-PEG) were developed and evaluated as potentially suitable materials for cell microencapsulation. Grafting 5-13% of the backbone units of sodium alginate (Na-alg) with α-amine-ω-thiol PEG maintained the gelling capacity in presence of calcium ions, while thiol end groups allowed for preparing chemically crosslinked hydrogel via spontaneous disulfide bond formation. The combination of these two gelling mechanisms yielded Ca-alg-PEG. Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (Huh-7) were encapsulated in Ca-alg-PEG and calcium alginate beads (Ca-alg), and cultured for 2 weeks under agitation conditions. Immediately after completion of the microencapsulation, the cell viability was 60% and similar in Ca-alg-PEG and Ca-alg. The proliferation of Huh-7 encapsulated in Ca-alg-PEG was slightly higher than in Ca-alg. Accelerated proliferation after 2 weeks was observed for the encapsulation in Ca-alg-PEG. The production of albumin confirmed the functionality of the encapsulated Huh-7 cells. The study confirms the suitability of Ca-alg-PEG and the one-step technology for cell microencapsulation.

Microencapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells decrease liver fibrosis in mice

“…We used a co-axial air-flow droplet generator as previously described [26]. Briefly, MSCs or EDX cells were detached using 0.25% trypsin-EDTA (Sigma) for about 30 sec and washed twice.…”

“…MSCs were microencapsulated in recently developed alg-PEG hybrid microspheres [26,27,29] collagen type I to IV (Goldner's trichrome), ( Supplementary Fig. 3E).…”

Survival of Free and Encapsulated Human and Rat Islet Xenografts Transplanted into the Mouse Bone Marrow

“…Because only a few studies have compared the rejection of concordant (rat) and discordant (human) islets in the mouse model, it remains difficult to predict whether the present results for rat islets will be similar for human islets. First, the innate response composed by neutrophils, macrophages and natural killer cells plays an active role in discordant transplantation [41]. Second, the rejection depends on the ability of donor antigen presenting cells (APC) to efficiently present antigen to the helper and effector T cells.…”

Bioconjugated Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

“…Other conjugated hydrogels to PEG include ECM-based hydrogels, 100 collagen, 101 chitosan, 102 chitosan-collagen, 103 and Alg, 104 which provide a range of biological, chemical, and physical properties for different TE and regenerative medicine applications.…”