Preparation of Glycyrrhetinic Acid-modified Sodium Alginate Microgel Spheres for 3D Cell Culture

Yang, MY (Yang Meiyue)^[ 1 ] ; Wang, W (Wang Wei)^[ 1 ] ; Tian, ZQ (Tian Zhiqing)^[ 1 ] ; Li, YY (Li Yingying)^[ 1 ] ; Yuan, Z (Yuan Zhi)^[ 1,2 ]

CHEMICAL JOURNAL OF CHINESE UNIVERSITIES-CHINESE, 2017, 38(2): 326-334

DOI: 10.7503/cjcu20160316

 WOS:000392523900022

Abstract

In order to obtain microgel sphere containing hydrophobic ligands which can be used for 3D liver cell culture. Firstly, the sodium alginate(ALG) was modified with tertiary ammonia-glycyrrhetinic acid[GA-N(CH3)(2)]. Then, the high flux, monodisperse, size controllable microgel of GA-N(CH3)(2) modified ALG[ALG-GA-N(CH3)(2)] was prepared by the technology of microfluidics with the assistant of agarose. The influence of different preparation condition, such as concentration of Span 80, substitution degree of hydrophobic ligand, concentration of ALG-GA-N(CH3)(2), velocity of water/oil phase, on microdroplet preparation were also studied. The results showed that the introduction of tertiary ammonia can significantly improve the hydrophility of GA. And the monodisperse microgel with 200 mu m diameter, which could be used for cell envelope culture, could be obtained under the condition below:the mass fraction of Span 80 is 2.0%, hydrophobic ligand substitution degree is less than 12%, concentration of sample is less than 15 mg/mL, the velocity of water is 1.5 mL/h and the velocity of oil is 6.0 mL/h. The microgel provides a new method for liver cell 3D culture and laid the foundation for its application in tissue engineering.