Abstract
Alginate-based scaffolds have received considerable attention for biomedical application because of their biocompatibility and ease of preparation. The application of alginate hydrogels for encapsulation of pancreatic islets is known as a potential treatment for type I diabetes. In this study, dextran–spermine coated microcapsules of alginate containing pancreatic islets were prepared, and then co-cultured with lymphocytes for 7 days. In addition, to prevent fibrosis and evaluating the effect of anti-inflammatory drugs, pentoxifylline was loaded in the inner layer of microcapsules. Intact and encapsulated islets in an external solution of pentoxifylline were taken as two separate controls in this study. Infrared and scanning electron microscope analyses showed polyelectrolyte complex formation between alginate and dextran–spermine. In vitro tests showed that interleukin-2 secretion from lymphocytes co-cultured with encapsulated islets containing pentoxifylline in the inner layer of microcapsules was 63.6 % lower than the corresponding value for encapsulated islets without the anti-inflammatory drug.
Highlights
There has been an increasing interest in the biocompatible tissue engineering scaffolds with drug release capacity, while protecting cells against the immune system
After encapsulation of islets in alginate/dextran–spermine double layer hydrogels, the viability was determined by fluorometric acridine orange (AO) (Sigma) inclusion and propidium iodide (PI) (Sigma) exclusion dyes
AO was stained only in the viable cells leading to green color and PI was stained only in the dead cells which results in red color (Nabavimanesh et al 2015)
Summary
There has been an increasing interest in the biocompatible tissue engineering scaffolds with drug release capacity, while protecting cells against the immune system. The classical type of multilayer microcapsules was designed by Lim and Sun (1980) for preparing bioartificial endocrine pancreas. This technology is based on the formation of polycationic membrane around a polyanionic core of sodium/calcium-alginate. Application of PLO instead of PLL resulted in stronger microcapsules and provided better perm-selectivity (Darrabie et al 2005). Most of these microcapsule designs were successful with promising results, some problems were encountered, especially when these systems were interacted by cells for long term (Ponce et al 2006).
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