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Microfluidic encapsulation of cells in alginate particles via an improved internal gelation approach

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Abstract

An improved internal gelation approach is developed to encapsulate single mammalian cells in monodisperse alginate microbeads as small as 26 μm in diameter and at rates of up to 1 kHz with high cell viability. The cell damage resulting from contact with calcium carbonate nanoparticles as gelation reagents is eliminated by employing a co-flow microfluidic device, and the cell exposure to low pH is minimized by a chemically balanced off-chip gelation step. These modifications significantly improve the viability of cells encapsulated in gelled alginate particles. Two different mammalian cell types are encapsulated with viability of over 84 %. The cells are functional and continue to grow inside the microparticles.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. D. A. Weitz, J. Heyman, A. Khavari, S. Utech, and R. Sperling for helpful discussions. S. Akbari, acknowledges the support of Prof. H. R. Shea and Swiss national foundation (Grant No. 200020-140394).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Samin Akbari

  2. Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Tohid Pirbodaghi

  3. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Samin Akbari & Tohid Pirbodaghi

Authors
  1. Samin Akbari
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  2. Tohid Pirbodaghi
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Correspondence to Samin Akbari.

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Samin Akbari and Tohid Pirbodaghi have contributed equally to this article.

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Akbari, S., Pirbodaghi, T. Microfluidic encapsulation of cells in alginate particles via an improved internal gelation approach. Microfluid Nanofluid 16, 773–777 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1264-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1264-z

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