Development of a coculture model of encapsulated cells

Contribution of polymeric materials to progress in xenotransplantation of microencapsulated cells: a review

Cell microencapsulation and subsequent transplantation of the microencapsulated cells require multidisciplinary approaches. Physical, chemical, biological, engineering, and medical expertise has to be combined. Several natural and synthetic polymeric materials and different technologies have been reported for the preparation of hydrogels, which are suitable to protect cells by microencapsulation. However, owing to the frequent lack of adequate characterization of the hydrogels and their components as well as incomplete description of the technology, many results of in vitro and in vivo studies appear contradictory or cannot reliably be reproduced. This review addresses the state of the art in cell microencapsulation with special focus on microencapsulated cells intended for xenotransplantation cell therapies. The choice of materials, the design and fabrication of the microspheres, as well as the conditions to be met during the cell microencapsulation process, are summarized and discussed prior to presenting research results of in vitro and in vivo studies. Overall, this review will serve to sensitize medically educated specialists for materials and technological aspects of cell microencapsulation.

Advances in cell encapsulation technology and its application in drug delivery

INTRODUCTION

Cell encapsulation technology has improved enormously since it was proposed 50 years ago. The advantages offered over other alternative systems, such as the prevention of repetitive drug administration, have triggered the use of this technology in multiple therapeutic applications.

AREAS COVERED

In this article, improvements in cell encapsulation technology and strategies to overcome the drawbacks that prevent its use in the clinic have been summarized and discussed. Different studies and clinical trials that have been performed in several therapeutic applications have also been described.

EXPERT OPINION

The authors believe that the future translation of this technology from bench to bedside requires the optimization of diverse aspects: i) biosafety, controlling and monitoring cell viability; ii) biocompatibility, reducing pericapsular fibrotic growth and hypoxia suffered by the graft; iii) control over drug delivery; iv) and the final scale up. On the other hand, an area that deserves more attention is the cryopreservation of encapsulated cells as this will facilitate the arrival of these biosystems to the clinic.

Treatment of acute hepatic failure in mice by transplantation of mixed microencapsulation of rat hepatocytes and transgenic human fetal liver stromal cells

Microencapsulation-mediated cell therapy overcomes the immune incompatibility between donor and recipient in transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of transplantation of microcapsules containing a mixture of rat hepatocytes and human fetal liver stromal cells (hFLSCs), engineered to produce basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), on acute liver failure (ALF) in mice. In vitro experiments showed that different combinations of microencapsulated rat's hepatocytes and stromal cells survive, grow, and function better in three-dimensional conditions. The metabolic activity of rat hepatocytes co-microencapsulated with hFLSCs, particularly when engineered to produce bFGF (FLSCs/bFGF), is significantly higher than that of microcapsules with rat hepatocytes alone. Intraperitoneal transplantation of the encapsulated hepatocytes with FLSCs/bFGF increased the survival rate and improved liver function of an ALF mouse model induced by a 70% partial hepatectomy in BALB/C mice. Moreover, dramatic liver regeneration was observed 2 days after transplantation in the group that received intraperitoneal transplantations of encapsulated hepatocytes with FLSCs/bFGF. Therefore, transplantation of encapsulated hepatocytes and hFLSCs/bFGF may be a promising strategy to treat ALF or related liver diseases.

PAM2 (piston assisted microsyringe): a new rapid prototyping technique for biofabrication of cell incorporated scaffolds

Rapid prototyping techniques are widely used to fabricate well-defined three-dimensional structures of tissue homologs. The piston-assisted microsyringe (PAM2) is a rapid prototyping technology specifically developed for low-shear stress extrusion of viscous hydrogel solutions containing cells. In this article the working parameters of the system were established to guarantee the realization of spatially controlled hydrogel scaffolds. Moreover the shear stresses acting on the cell membrane during extrusion was investigated through a computational fluid-dynamic analysis. The computational models show that the shear stress on the cells is of the order of 100 Pa during the extrusion process. HepG2 cells encapsulated in alginate were then extruded into spatially organized hepatic lobule-like architectures and their viability and function were evaluated. The results show that the metabolic fingerprint of the cells is preserved with respect to controls and the cells are uniformly distributed through the gel scaffold.

Insulin encapsulation in reinforced alginate microspheres prepared by internal gelation

Insulin-loaded alginate microspheres prepared by emulsification/internal gelation were reinforced by blending with polyanionic additive polymers and/or chitosan-coating in order to increase the protection of insulin at simulated gastric pH and obtain a sustained release at simulated intestinal pH. Polyanionic additive polymers blended with alginate were cellulose acetate phtalate (CAP), Eudragit L100 (EL100), sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), polyphosphate (PP), dextran sulfate (DS) and cellulose sulfate (CS). Chitosan-coating was applied by using a one-stage procedure. The influence of additive polymers and chitosan-coating on the size distribution of microspheres, encapsulation efficiency and release profile of insulin in simulated gastrointestinal pH conditions was studied. The mean diameter of blended microspheres ranged from 65 to 106 microm and encapsulation efficiency of insulin varied from 14 to 100%, reaching a maximum value when CS and DS were incorporated in the alginate matrix. Insulin release, at pH 1.2, was almost prevented by the incorporation of PP, DS and CS. When uncoated microspheres were transferred to pH 6.8, a fast dissolution occurred, independently of the additive polymer blended with alginate, and insulin was completely released. Increasing the additive polymer concentration in the alginate matrix and/or chitosan-coating the blended alginate microspheres did not promote a sustained release of insulin from microspheres at pH 6.8.

Properties of cryopreserved fetal liver stem/progenitor cells that exhibit long-term repopulation of the normal rat liver

We have previously achieved a high level of long-term liver replacement by transplanting freshly isolated embryonic day (ED) 14 rat fetal liver stem/progenitor cells (FLSPCs). However, for most clinical applications, it will be necessary to use cryopreserved cells that can effectively repopulate the host organ. In the present study, we report the growth and gene expression properties in culture of rat FLSPCs cryopreserved for up to 20 months and the ability of cryopreserved FLSPCs to repopulate the normal adult rat liver. After thawing and placement in culture, cryopreserved FLSPCs exhibited a high proliferation rate: 49.7% Ki-67-positive on day 1 and 34.7% Ki-67-positive on day 5. The majority of cells were also positive for both alpha-fetoprotein and cytokeratin-19 (potentially bipotent) on day 5. More than 80% of cultured cells expressed albumin, the asialoglycoprotein receptor, and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (unique hepatocyte-specific functions). Expression of glucose-6-phosphatase, carbamyl phosphate synthetase 1, hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha, tyrosine aminotransferase, and oncostatin M receptor mRNAs was initially negative, but all were expressed on day 5 in culture. After transplantation into the normal adult rat liver, cryopreserved FLSPCs proliferated continuously, regenerated both hepatocytes and bile ducts, and produced up to 15.1% (mean, 12.0% +/- 2.0%) replacement of total liver mass at 6 months after cell transplantation. These results were obtained in a normal liver background under nonselective conditions. This study is the first to show a high level of long-term liver replacement with cryopreserved fetal liver cells, an essential requirement for future clinical applications.

Present and Future Developments in Hepatic Tissue Engineering for Liver Support Systems : State of the art and future developments of hepatic cell culture techniques for the use in liver support systems

The liver is the most important organ for the biotransformation of xenobiotics, and the failure to treat acute or acute-on-chronic liver failure causes high mortality rates in affected patients. Due to the lack of donor livers and the limited possibility of the clinical management there has been growing interest in the development of extracorporeal liver support systems as a bridge to liver transplantation or to support recovery during hepatic failure. Earlier attempts to provide liver support comprised non-biological therapies based on the use of conventional detoxification procedures, such as filtration and dialysis. These techniques, however, failed to meet the expected efficacy in terms of the overall survival rate due to the inadequate support of several essential liver-specific functions. For this reason, several bioartificial liver support systems using isolated viable hepatocytes have been constructed to improve the outcome of treatment for patients with fulminant liver failure by delivering essential hepatic functions. However, controlled trials (phase I/II) with these systems have shown no significant survival benefits despite the systems' contribution to improvements in clinical and biochemical parameters. For the development of improved liver support systems, critical issues, such as the cell source and culture conditions for the long-term maintenance of liver-specific functions in vitro, are reviewed in this article. We also discuss aspects concerning the performance, biotolerance and logistics of the selected bioartificial liver support systems that have been or are currently being preclinically and clinically evaluated.

Hepatocyte viability and protein expression within hydrogel microstructures

Poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) hydrogels have been successfully used to entrap mammalian cells for potential high throughput drug screening and biosensing applications. To determine the influence of PEG composition on the production of cellular protein, mammalian hepatocytes were maintained in PEG hydrogels for 7 days. Total cell viability, total protein production, and the production of two specific proteins, albumin and fibronectin, were monitored. Studies revealed that while PEG composition has no effect on cell viability, increasing amounts of PEG in the hydrogel decrease the amount of protein production by the cells after 7 days from 1.0 x 10(5) +/- 1.7 x 10(4) to 5.2 x 10(3) +/- 1.3 x 10(3) g accumulated protein/mL/million cells. Additionally, cells entrapped in PEG hydrogels produce greater amounts of protein than traditional monolayer culture (1.5 x 10(3) +/- 1.9 x 10(2) g accumulated protein/mL/million cells after 7 days). The addition of the synthetic peptide RGD to 10% PEG hydrogels altered the production of the proteins albumin and fibronectin. Hydrogels with the RGD sequence produced 287 +/- 27 ng/mL/million cells albumin after 7 days, an order of magnitude greater than monolayer cultures, whereas cells in hydrogels without the RGD sequence produced undetectable levels of albumin. Conversely, cells entrapped in 10% PEG hydrogels without the RGD sequence produced 1014 +/- 328 ng/mL/million cells fibronectin after 7 days, whereas 10% PEG hydrogels with the RGD sequence produced 200 +/- 58 ng/mL/million cells fibronectin after 7 days.