Open AccessEncapsulation of mesenchymal stem cells in glycosaminoglycans‐chitosan polyelectrolyte microcapsules using electrospraying technique: Investigating capsule morphology and cell viability
Author(s) -
Vossoughi Amin,
Matthew Howard W. T.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
bioengineering and translational medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2380-6761
DOI - 10.1002/btm2.10111
Subject(s) - cell encapsulation , mesenchymal stem cell , polyelectrolyte , capsule , encapsulation (networking) , viability assay , tissue engineering , materials science , chitosan , biomedical engineering , nanotechnology , chemistry , chemical engineering , self healing hydrogels , polymer , cell , polymer chemistry , composite material , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , computer science , medicine , computer network , botany , engineering , biology
Polyelectrolyte microcapsules are modular constructs which facilitate cell handling and assembly of cell‐based tissue constructs. In this study, an electrospray (ES) encapsulation apparatus was developed for the encapsulation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Ionic complexation between glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and chitosan formed a polyelectrolyte complex membrane at the interface. To optimize the capsules, the effect of voltage, needle size and GAG formulation on capsule size were investigated. It was observed that by increasing the voltage and decreasing the needle size, the capsule size would decrease but at voltages above 12 kV, capsule size distribution broadened significantly which yields lower circularity. Increase in GAG viscosity resulted in larger microcapsules and cell viability exhibited no significant changes during the encapsulation procedure. These results suggest that ES is a highly efficient, and scalable approach to the encapsulation of MSCs for subsequent use in bioprinting and other modular tissue engineering or regenerative medicine applications.