Microencapsulation procedures for the immunoisolation of Wharton’s Jelly mesenchymal stem cells: A review

Abstract

The entrapment of cells is one of the most promising and usefulness tool in tissue transplantation and regenerative medicine. Cell encapsulation procedures allow the physical isolation of cells from the surrounding environment, after their transplantation and the maintenance of the normal cellular physiology. In this paper, different microencapsulation procedures for Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells (WJMSCs) are reported, including coaxial bead generator, vibrating-nozzle procedure and microfluidic based approach. The produced microcapsules were characterized by excellent morphological characteristics and a very narrow size distribution. The experiments demonstrated that the microencapsulation procedure did not alter the morphology, viability and osteogenic differentiation of the enveloped WJMSCs. In conclusion, the encapsulation technologies, here presented, represent a promising strategy for the possible in vivo applications of WJMSCs in tissue engineering and biomedicine.