Chitosan-alginate microfibers generation on a microfluidic chip and encapsulation of HepG2 cells

초록

The successful encapsulation of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells would assist applications in tissue engineering. In this paper, we have developed a method to produce chitosan-alginate microfibers within a microfluidic chip. Also, by suspending cells in the mixing solution, we fabricated HepG2 cell-laden fibers. The encapsulated HepG2 cells in the chitosan-alginate fibers were more viable than cells encapsulated in pure alginate fibers, suggesting that chitosan provides a better environment for HepG2 cells than alginate. The proposed technique provided an uniform distribution of cells within the fibers, which has been a critical yet previously unmet requirement for tissue engineering. Copyright © (2011) by the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society.