ORIGINAL ARTICLES  NEW TRENDS IN BIOENCAPSULATION - Part 2 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2006 March;18(1):57-63

Copyright © 2006 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

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Design and production of alginate-based microdevices for Sertoli’s cells encapsulation

Bilancetti L. ¹, Tosi A. ¹, Di Croce S. ¹, Mazzitelli S. ¹, Bozzuto N. ¹, Luca G. ², Calafiore R. ², Calvitti M. ³, Nastruzzi C. ¹

¹ Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy 2 Section of Internal Medicine and Endocrine and Metabolic Sciences Department of Internal Medicine University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy 3 Section of Histology Histochemistry and Embryology School of Medicine and Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Aim. The present paper describes the production of living-guide intended as nerve conduit for nerve repair. Sertoli’s cells (SC) have recently gained a great importance since these interesting cells can improve both in vitro and in vivo functions and differentiation of many cell types. These properties have fostered intense researches to possibly apply SC to transplantation protocols.
Methods. In this paper we present the encapsulation of SC in Ca-alginate, Ba-alginate and Ca-alginate-polylysine microtubes. For the production of both microcylinders and microtubes, specialized extrusors were employed. Extrusors were designed and produced respectively using CAD-software and Derlin®.
Results. SC containing microcylinders and microtubes were in vitro characterized for cell viability.
Conclusion. When taken together these data are particularly important since SC are well known for their ability to produce a large number of growth factors, positively influencing the growth and differentiations of nerve cells.