Preliminary characteristic of alginate,heparin-chitosan-alginate,heparin microencapsulated hepatocytes system

Alginate, low mole mass heparin-chitosan-alginate, low mole mass heparin microcapsules (ALCAL) with good mechanical stability were made from the high voltage pulsing microcapsule shaping device. ALCAL was made of low-mole-mass heparin (LMWH), alginate (ALG) and chitosan (CS) by supramolecular layer upon layer self-assembled technique. It was found from the microscopic observation that the microcapsules had smooth surface and a porous structure with interconnected pores. The results of the permeability experiment of microcapsules using fluorescein isothiocyanate-bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) and fluorescein isothiocyanate-immunoglobulin G (FITC-IgG) showed that the ALCAL membrane could provide cell immuno-isolation; meanwhile, the ALCAL membrane had good biocompatibility. The potential of ALCAL microcapsules for the encapsulation of liver cells had been investigated and showed that the ALCAL membrane supports the survival, proliferation and protein secretion on encapsulating hepatocytes. The ALCAL microcapsule had several advantages compared to more widely used alginate-chitosan-alginate (ACA) microcapsules for the application of cell therapy.