Cytocompatible and reversible phospholipid polymer hydrogels for encapsulation to provide unified quality cells

Abstract

As the field of regenerative medicine based on stem cell engineering starts to play the important role in the new generation of bioengineering, the cells are starting to be treated as one of the materials to be controlled and optimized rather than those to be observed. Temporal and spatial encapsulation of the cells by the hydrogels are getting an attention as a novel way to handle cells in the three dimensional condition. In this study, cytocompatible and reversible phospholipid polymer hydrogels were prepared by mixing the aqueous solutions of poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine-co-n-butyl methacrylate-co-p-vinylphenylboronic acid) (PMBV) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The murine pluripotent stem cell line C3H10T1/2 is known to suppress its proliferation when encapsulated in the PMBV/PVA hydrogel with storage modulus of 1.2 kPa. The cell cycle of the encapsulated cells were unified to G1 phase in cell proliferation cycle after 1 day of encapsulation. The differentiation of C3H10T1/2 to osteogenic cells by bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction method after induction of BMP-2 signal for 3 days. The cells encapsulated in the PMBV/PVA hydrogel showed 1.7-hold increase of early-stage osteoblast gene expression with well-defined quality will make substantial contribution to the field of regenerative medicine.