Scalable encapsulation of hepatocytes by electrostatic spraying

Encapsulating cells by polyelectrolyte complex coacervation can be accomplished at physiological temperature and buffer conditions. One of the oppositely charged polyelectrolytes in the microcapsule core can be collagen or any other natural extra-cellular matrices suitable for cellular support while the other polyelectrolyte forms the ultra-thin shell to ensure efficient mass transfer. These microcapsules with ultra-thin shell are difficult to produce in large quantities due to their fragility. In this study, electrostatic spraying technique was used to achieve a scalable production of one such type of microcapsules formed by complex coacervation between the cationic methylated collagen and anionic terpolymer of hydroxylethyl methacrylate, methyl methacrylate and methylacrylic acid (HEMA-MMA-MAA). It was found that the microcapsule sizes were dependent on several important operational parameters, such as the diameter of the spraying needle, the flow rate of the hepatocytes-collagen mixture and the voltage of the electrical field. The microcapsules with diameters of 200-800 μm and a narrow size distribution (standard deviation of 5-28%) were successfully produced. The above parameters also influenced the hepatocyte viability and functions. With a practical encapsulation rate of up to 55 ml/h per orifice required in bio-artificial liver-assisted device applications, we have produced large quantities of microcapsules maintaining comparable cell viability (>87%), mechanical stability and bio-functions to the manually extruded microcapsules.