Immobilization of living cells or other biomaterials in alginate gels is a well-known technology used in an increasing number of biomedical and industrial applications.
Cells immobilized in alginate gels maintain good viability during long-term culture due to the mild environment of the gel network. In tissue engineering applications immobilized cells or tissue can be used as bioartificial organs as the alginate gel may function as a protective barrier towards physical stress and to avoid immunological reactions with the host.
Such bioreactor systems, of which the entrapped cells are selected or manipulated to excrete therapeutic products, are currently being developed for the treatment of a variety of diseases like cancer and diabetes.
For most uses, and in particular those involving immobilization of living cells, microcapsules are used. Smaller beads/capsules have the advantage of a higher surface to volume ratio allowing good transport of essential nutrients and are also less fragile.
Diffusion limitations within larger beads may limit cellular metabolism as the lack of essential substances like oxygen supply to the interior of the beads may lead to cell death as a result of consumption from the surrounding cells.
Therefore a good control of bead size and shape is crucial and should be carefully controlled. A suitable methodology for production of small beads under controlled conditions is therefore also necessary. The bead generators used by NovaMatrix are recommended alternatives for research use in the production of small spherical alginate beads containing biological materials and having a narrow size distribution.
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