Encapsulation of Chondrocytes in Hydrogel Systems Effect of Chitosan Viscosity and Microcapsule Shape

Abstract

Alginate-chitosan-alginate multilayer hydrogel encapsulation systems were investigated for encapsulation of chondrocytes. Hydrogel is crosslinked due to ionic interaction between cationic chitosan and anionic alginate, and additionally by calcium ions. Two types of chitosan with molecular weight were investigated. Cells were encapsulated in two shape microcapsules, microbeads with diameter size 300-400 and 500-600 µm and fibres with diameter 500-600 µm. The work provides a detailed examination of the impact of the microencapsulation process on the growth of cells. The viability of chondrocytes can be influenced by the size of produced microcapsules, while the shape of microcapsules has no important significance on cell viability. The applied encapsulation methods do not contain harmful stages and create conducive conditions for cell growth. A possible application area of the developed system is dressing and regeneration of damaged joint cartilage.