Microencapsulated Stem Cells for Tissue Repairing: Implications in Cell-Based Myocardial Therapy

Abstract

Stem cells have the unique properties of self-renewal, pluripotency and a high proliferative capability, which contributes to a large biomass potential. Hence, these cells act as a useful source for acquiring renewable adult cell lines. This, in turn, acts as a potent therapeutic tool to treat various diseases related to the heart, liver and kidney, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. However, a major problem that must be overcome before it can be effectively implemented into the clinical setting is a suitable delivery system that can retain an optimal quantity of the cells at the targeted site for a maximal clinical benefit; a system that will give a mechanical as well as an immune protection to the foreign cells, while at the same time enhancing the yields of differentiated cells, maintaining cell microenvironments and sustaining the differentiated cell functions. To address this issue we opted for a novel delivery system, termed the 'artificial cells', which are semipermeable microcapsules with strong and thin multilayer membrane components with specific mass transport properties. Here, we briefly introduce the concept of artificial cells for encapsulation of stem cells and investigate the application of microencapsulation technology as an ideal tool for all stem transplantations and relate their role to the emerging field of cellular cardiomyoplasty.

Investigation on PEG Integrated Alginate–Chitosan Microcapsules for Myocardial Therapy Using Marrow Stem Cells Genetically Modified by Recombinant Baculovirus

“…1,40 Direct intramyocardial delivery by injecting microencapsulated marrow stromal cells to the peri-infarct region of acutely infarcted heart can be of immense potential as shown by our recent preliminary preclinical data. 28 It shows that the retention of cells can be increased by approximately four times by using microcapsules in comparison to free cells. Thus, in order to develop a more advanced delivery system for myocardial transplantation, we have designed these smooth, spherical and much more resilient PEG integrated polymeric microcapsules with a diameter of around 400 lm encapsulating an average of 80 cells per capsule.…”

Impact of alginate type and bead diameter on mass transfers and the metabolic activities of encapsulated C3A cells in bioartificial liver applications

“…Alginate is an unbranched natural copolymer composed of β-D-mannuronate (M) and α-L-guluronate (G), linked together by 1,4 bonds (Garbayo et al, 2002;Bajpai and Sharma, 2004). Due to its relative stability, biocompatibility, adjustable porosity and simplicity of use, alginate is thus a biomaterial of choice when it comes to entrapping cells (Garbayo et al, 2002;Zmora et al, 2002;David et al, 2004a;De Vos et al, 2006;Zimmermann et al, 2007;Wikstrom et al, 2008), to cell therapy (Chang, 2005;Paul et al, 2009) or to being used in medical devices (Ueyama et al, 2002;Orive et al, 2004;Gao et al, 2005;De Vos et al, 2006;Orive et al, 2006;Wikstrom et al, 2008). Some of these studies were conducted with hepatocytes that were either encapsulated within alginate beads (Selden et al, 1999;David et al, 2004b;Gao et al, 2005;Kinasiewicz et al, 2007;Kinasiewicz et al, 2008) or capsules (Canaple et al, 2001;Orive et al, 2004;Haque et al, 2005), or seeded within alginate scaffolds (Zmora et al, 2002;Seo et al, 2006).…”

Transplantation of umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells to treat liver cirrhosis in mice: a comparison of tail and portal vein injection

“…For that reason, and from our study results, the portal vein should be regarded as a priority route for UCB-MSC treatment of liver cirrhosis, with careful considerations to eliminate the risk of bleeding and damage to the recipient organ (Paul et al, 2009). …”