Fabrication of a tunable hydrogel membrane for constructing indirect cell coculture system

Abstract

In this study, an improved indirect cell coculture system was constructed by using a polyelectrolyte complex membrane generated by alginate (A) and chitosan (C). Methodologies of characterizing thickness and permeability of flat AC membrane were first established due to the importance of these two parameters in determining intercellular distance and degree of contact between cocultured cells. Compared to reaction time, both alginate concentration and molecular weight (Mw) of chitosan play more dominant roles in determining the membrane thickness and diffusion coefficients. Moreover, cells in the alginate gel and on the AC membrane could maintain high cell viability. Thus, an improved indirect cell coculture system constructed by flat AC membrane was fabricated and characterized, which provides a robust tool to study the effect of intercellular distance and degree of contact between cocultured cells on cell–cell interactions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43100.

Mouse ovarian follicle growth in an amniotic membrane-based hydrogel

“…Then 15, 30 and 45 mg of lyophilized tissue were weighted and dissolved in 0.5 M acetic acid and 1 mg/mL pepsin solution. Then the solutions contain different densities of lyophilized HAM were neutralized with NaOH 2 M. After that the 1.5% ALG solution that had been created by dissolving 0.15 g sodium alginate in 10 mL NaCl 26 was combined with AMBH15, AMBH30 and AMBH45in a 1:1 ratio. For the purpose of forming AMBH and ALG gel, a few drops of CaCl2 were added, as a calcium bath.…”