Graphene oxide increases the viability of C2C12 myoblasts microencapsulated in alginate.

Cell microencapsulation represents a great promise for long-term drug delivery, but still several challenges need to be overcome before its translation into the clinic, such as the long term cell survival inside the capsules. On this regard, graphene oxide has shown to promote proliferation of different cell types either in two or three dimensions. Therefore, we planned to combine graphene oxide with the cell microencapsulation technology. We first studied the effect of this material on the stability of the capsules and next we analyzed the biocompatibility of this chemical compound with erythropoietin secreting C2C12 myoblasts within the microcapsule matrix. We produced 160 μm-diameter alginate microcapsules with increasing concentrations of graphene oxide and did not find modifications on the physicochemical parameters of traditional alginate microcapsules. Moreover, we observed that the viability of encapsulated cells within alginate microcapsules containing specific graphene oxide concentrations was enhanced. These results provide a relevant step for the future clinical application of graphene oxide on cell microencapsulation.