Monitoring of cell viability and proliferation in hydrogel-encapsulated system by resazurin assay.

Cell microencapsulation is a promising approach for cell implantation, cell-based gene therapy and large-scale cell culture. For better quality control, it is important to accurately measure the microencapsulated cell viability and proliferation in the culture. A number of assays have been used for this purpose, but limitations arise. In this study, we investigated the feasibility and reliability of resazurin as a cell growth indicator in microencapsulated culture system. According to the experiment data, there was a reversible, time- and dose-dependent growth inhibition as observed for resazurin application in encapsulated cells. A positive relationship was observed between reduction of resazurin and CHO cell number in microcapsule. Moreover, the resazurin assay provided an equivalent result to the commonly used MTT method in determining CHO cell proliferation in APA microcapsule with no notable influence on cell distribution and organization pattern. In conclusion, resazurin assay is offered as a simple, rapid and non-invasive method for in vitro microencapsulated cell viability and proliferation measurement.