Abstract
A small scale stirred bioreactor was designed and the effect of different agitation rates (30, 60 and 100 rpm) was investigated on HepG2 cells cultured in alginate-chitosan (AC) core-shell microcapsule in terms of the cell proliferation and liver-specific function. The microencapsulated hepatic cells could proliferate well when they were cultured for 10 days at 30 rpm while the cell-laden microcapsules showed no cell proliferation at 100 rpm in the bioreactor system. Albumin production rate, as an important liver function, increased also 1.8- and 1.5- fold under stirring rate of 30 rpm compared to the static culture and 60 rpm of agitation, respectively. Moreover, In comparison with the static culture, about 1.5-fold increment in urea production was observed at 30 rpm. Similarly, the highest expressions of albumin and P450 genes were found at 30 rpm stirring rate, which were 4.9- and 19.2-fold of the static culture. Addition of collagen to the microcapsule core composition (ACol/C) could improve the cell proliferation and functionality at 60 rpm in comparison with the cell-laden microcapsules without collagen. The study demonstrated the hepatic cell-laden ACol/C microcapsule hydrogel cultured in the small scale stirred bioreactor at low mixing rate has a great potential for mass production of the hepatic cells while maintaining liver-specific functions.
Highlights
Liver failure has been a significant problem for health care systems throughout the world [1]
High glucose-Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (HDMEM), penicillin/streptomycin, fetal bovine serum (FBS), Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS) and trypsin-EDTA 0.25% were obtained from Gibco (France)
In this study we studied the response of HepG2 cells cultured in alginate-chitosan core-shell microcapsule to shear force at different agitation rates
Summary
Liver failure has been a significant problem for health care systems throughout the world [1]. Some studies show alginate microcapsules with less than 500 μm diameter can provide adequate diffusion of oxygen to the microencapsulated cells [8,9,10]. Alginate microcapsules have been used to confine cancer cells such as liver cancer cells and facilitate spontaneous formation of spheroids reproducing solid tumor properties [11]. Some studies have attempted to engineer organoid models by microcapsules to recapitulate complex tumor microenvironments [12] as well as implantable therapeutics in tissue engineering [13]. Alginate-polycation microcapsules have been recently used for the immune protection of transplanted hepatocytes as well as hepatic tissue formation [15,16,17,18]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
