title: Microfluidic Approach to Cell Microencapsulation.
abstract: Bioartificial pancreas made of insulin-secreting islets cells holds great promise in the treatment of individuals with Type-1 diabetes. Successful islet cell microencapsulation in biopolymers is a key step for providing immunoisolation of transplanted islet cells. Because of the variability in the size and shape of pancreatic islets, one of the main obstacles in their microencapsulation is the inability to consistently control shape, size, and microstructure of the encapsulating biopolymer capsule. In this chapter, we provide a detailed description of a microfluidic approach to islet cell encapsulation in alginate that might address the microencapsulation challenges.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, 222 Flour Daniel Building, 216 South Palmetto Blvd., Box 340921, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA.
authors.forename: Varna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, NC, 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hunckler
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, 222 Flour Daniel Building, 216 South Palmetto Blvd., Box 340921, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA.
authors.forename: Melur K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Ramasubramanian
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.|Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences (SBES), Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Emmanuel C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Opara
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road Mailstop XXX, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. KKaturi@lbl.gov.
authors.forename: Kalyan C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Katuri
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D018914:Cells, Immobilized / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D004339:Drug Compounding / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology*; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D020723:Glucuronic Acid
keywords: Diabetes; Islets; Microencapsulation; Microfluidic cell encapsulation