Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2276 | Acta Biomaterialia | 2010 | 6 Pages |
Multicellular spheroids are important in biomedical applications, such as drug research and regenerative medicine. We developed microcapsules from sodium alginate and gelatin for mass production of size-controlled spheroids with diameters <200 μm. The microcapsules were composed of calcium alginate gels with spherical liquid cores (diameter ≈ 150 μm) for formation of spheroids. The spherical liquid cores were prepared by incubating calcium alginate microcapsules containing thermally gelled, cell-enclosing gelatin microparticles about 150 μm in diameter, at 37 °C. The gelatin microparticles were encapsulated within the microcapsules by dropping a sodium alginate solution containing suspended gelatin microparticles into 100 mM CaCl2. The enclosed feline renal fibroblast cell line, CRFK, cells showed 93.8% viability immediately after encapsulation, then grew and completely filled the spherical cores. Multicellular spheroids were collected within 1 min by soaking microcapsules in a medium containing alginate lyase.