Bio-protocols for directly forming active encapsulations containing living primary cells

Abstract

Electrosprays and electrospinning were recently pioneered for directly handling living cells. These recent discoveries are now widely referred to as “bio-electrosprays” and “cell electrospinning”, which have been demonstrated as having tremendous applicability to the life sciences in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. In the current work, we report our developmental studies with these protocols as submerged entities with primary rabbit aorta smooth muscle cells for generating cell-bearing encapsulations, which demonstrate proof-of-concept for a plethora of biomedical applications. Cell viability of the post-treated cells was assessed in comparison with two controls by way of flow cytometry over a three week period, establishing a viable cellular population >70%. Hence these investigations demonstrate the ability to explore these electrified encapsulating approaches for directly forming biologically viable emulsions, which could potentially be exploited from mechanisms for cancer therapy, hormone, and diabetic treatment to applications with cosmetics. Therefore, these studies elucidate the strong implications these bio-protocols have to offer the life sciences.