Evaluation of Three-Dimensional Porous Iron-Cross-Linked Alginate as a Scaffold for Cell Culture

Abstract

We investigated the efficacy of three-dimensional porous ferric-ion-cross-linked alginate (Fe-alginate) gels as cell scaffolds, in comparison with calcium-ion-cross-linked alginate (Ca-alginate) gels. In a previous study, we had demonstrated that twodimensional Fe-alginate film was an efficient material for use as a scaffold, allowing good cell adhesion and proliferation, unlike Caalginate film. In the present study, we fabricated three-dimensional porous Fe-and Ca-alginate gels by freeze-drying and evaluated their effects on cultured cells. The Fe-alginate gels showed higher protein adsorption ability than Ca-alginate gels. Cells formed multicellular spheroids in both types of alginate scaffold, but the number of cultured cells increased with culture time on Fealginate porous gels, whereas those on Ca-alginate gels did not. Moreover, it was revealed that the cells on Fe-alginate scaffolds were still viable inside the multicellular spheroids even after cultivation for 14 days. These results suggest that Fe-alginate provides a superior porous scaffold suitable for three-dimensional culture of cells. Our findings may be useful for extending the application of Fe-alginate to diverse biomedical fields.

Iron(iii)-cross-linked alginate hydrogels: a critical review

“…154 Furthermore, the Fe 3+ -Alg was used as a scaffold for 3D growth of cells. 155 Cells were viable inside the matrix up to 14 days after cultivation.…”

“…154 Furthermore, the Fe 3+ -Alg was used as a scaffold for 3D growth of cells. 155 Cells were viable inside the matrix up to 14 days after cultivation. In addition to cell growth, the Fe 3+ -Alg hydrogels have been employed for other biomedical applications, typically in combination with other materials.…”

Towards Ready-to-Use Iron-Crosslinked Alginate Beads as Mesenchymal Stem Cell Carriers

“…However, sodium alginate can be crosslinked with other ion sources to form scaffolds with alternative biological and physicochemical properties, such as iron chloride (FeCl 3 ), approved by the Food and Drug Administration FDA for food industry [23]. In particular, iron alginate (Fe-alginate) films and porous structures were previously proposed and showed promising results regarding cell adhesion and proliferation, but were tested with fibroblasts only and in a very limited number of studies [24,25]. Such materials were reported more frequently for drug release [26][27][28][29] or the treatment of wastewater [30,31], but not for in vitro MSCs culture experiments.…”