Lee Wen-Yu, Chang Yu-Hsiang, Yeh Yi-Chun, Chen Chun-Hung, Lin Kurt M, Huang Chieh-Cheng, Chang Yen, Sung Hsing-Wen
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC.
Biomaterials. 2009 Oct;30(29):5505-13. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.07.006. Epub 2009 Jul 25.
Typical cell transplantation techniques involve the administration of dissociated cells directly injected into muscular tissues; however, retention of the transplanted cells at the sites of the cell graft is frequently limited. An approach, using spherically symmetric aggregates of cells with a relatively uniform size self-assembled in a thermo-responsive methylcellulose hydrogel system, is reported in the study. The obtained cell aggregates preserved their endogenous extracellular matrices (ECM) and intercellular junctions because no proteolytic enzyme was used when harvesting the cell aggregates. Most of the cells within aggregates (with a radius of approximately 100 microm) were viable as indicated by the live/dead staining assay. After injection through a needle, the cell aggregates remained intact and the cells retained their activity upon transferring to another growth surface. The cell aggregates obtained under sterile conditions were transplanted into the skeletal muscle of rats via local injection. The dissociated cells were used as a control. It was found that the cell aggregates can provide an adequate physical size to entrap into the muscular interstices and offer a favorable ECM environment to enhance retention of the transplanted cells at the sites of the cell graft. These results indicated that the spherically symmetric cell aggregates developed in the study may serve as a cell delivery vehicle for therapeutic applications.
典型的细胞移植技术包括将解离的细胞直接注射到肌肉组织中；然而，移植细胞在细胞移植部位的留存率通常较低。该研究报道了一种方法，即在热响应性甲基纤维素水凝胶系统中自组装形成大小相对均匀的球形对称细胞聚集体。由于在收获细胞聚集体时未使用蛋白水解酶，所获得的细胞聚集体保留了其内源性细胞外基质（ECM）和细胞间连接。活/死染色分析表明，聚集体内的大多数细胞（半径约为100微米）具有活力。通过针头注射后，细胞聚集体保持完整，并且在转移到另一个生长表面时细胞仍保持其活性。在无菌条件下获得的细胞聚集体通过局部注射移植到大鼠的骨骼肌中。解离的细胞用作对照。研究发现，细胞聚集体能够提供足够的物理尺寸以嵌入肌肉间隙，并提供有利的ECM环境，从而提高移植细胞在细胞移植部位的留存率。这些结果表明，该研究中开发的球形对称细胞聚集体可作为治疗应用的细胞递送载体。
