Microencapsulation of immortalized mandibular condylar chondrocytes / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

To explore the possibility of microencapsulation of chondrocytes in cartilage tissue engineering, immortalized manibular condylar chondrocytes (IMCCs) were microencapsuled by Alginate-polylysine-alginate (APA) method, according to air pressure shearing model. Phase contrast microscopy, trypan blue staining exclusion, cell number counting, HE staining and immunohistochemistry method were used to observe the morphology of the microencapsules, the growth character of cells, cartilage characteristics, and so on. The results showed that IMCC could survive and grow in microencapsule, and the viability rate of cells is more than 80 per cent. The diameter of microcapsule is 779 microns in average. The number of cell increased with time, and cells went into platform in about 20 days. Cells grew in clusters and cartilage specific proteoglycans and type II collagen were highly expressed. It was concluded that IMCC could form cartilage-like tissue within microencapsulation, implying that microencapsule technique might be applicable to cartilage tissue engineering.