Hydrogels-based cell encapsulation

Similarly to the phospholipid polymers, the MPC polymers show excellent biocompatibility and blood compatibility [43—48]. These properties are based on the bioinert character of the MPC polymers, i.e., inhibition of specific interaction with biomolecules [49, 50]. Recently, the MPC polymers have been applied to various medical and pharmaceutical applications [44-47, 51-55]. The crosslinked MPC polymers provide good hydrogels and they have been used in the manufacture of soft contact lenses. We have applied the MPC polymer hydrogel as a cell-encapsulation matrix due to its excellent cytocompatibility. At the same time, to prepare a spontaneously forming reversible hydrogel, we focused on the reversible covalent bonding formed between phenylboronic acid and polyol in an aqueous system. 

N.E. Vrana, A.O. Grady, E. Kay, P.A. Cahill, G.B. Mcguinness, Cell encapsulation within PVA-based hydrogels via freeze-thawing a one-step scaffold formation and cell storage technique, J. Tissue Eng. Regen. Med. 3 (2009) 567-572. 

Silva R, Fabry B, Boccaccini AR (2014) Fibrous protein-based hydrogels for cell encapsulation. Biomaterials 35 6727-6738. doi 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.04.078... 

As for animal cell entrapment in hydrogel microparticles or microcapsules, encapsulation procedure should proceed under physiological conditions within a short time (20-30 min), in order to provide cell viability, and to be as simple as possible because all manipulations are carried out under strictly sterile conditions. Taking into account all these requirements, it should be noted that the list of polymer materials and methods for animal cell encapsulation is rather limited. So-called alginate-based carriers (microparticles, micro- and nanocapsules) assure the favorable polymer systems for animal cell immobilization. 

Concerning possible applications, the proposed uses are still mainly based on the hydrogel character of ESA films, that is, on their tendency to swell efficiently in aqueous media without dissolution. As already discussed in Section IX up to the year 1999, such potential applications comprise biocompatible and nonfouling coatings [368,447,694,801,804-819], biodegradable coatings [774,814,820], enzyme immobilization or encapsulation [403,563,800,821-827], cell encapsulation... 

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