Alginate Microbeads for Cell and Protein Delivery.

Alginate hydrogels have been used for a broad variety of medical applications. The ability to assemble alginate gels at neutral pH and mild temperatures makes alginate a promising choice for the encapsulation and delivery of cells and proteins. This chapter covers the basics of cell encapsulation and protein delivery using two different variations of alginate microbeads, single layered and multilayer systems. The first section describes a method for encapsulating cells within alginate microbeads coated with a permselective polymer layer. The second section describes a multilayer alginate microbead system that allows simultaneous encapsulation of cells and delivery of growth factors. The primary goal of the systems described is for encapsulation of islets as a treatment for type I diabetes. However, these microbeads can be used for a broad variety of applications in tissue engineering, cell encapsulation, and regenerative medicine.