121st General Meeting of the KCS

Type Oral Presentation
Area Oral Presentation in Chemistry of Life
Room No. Room 203
Time THU 10:00-:
Code BIO.O-4
Subject Cell Encapsulation: Cytoprotection of Living Cells against External Stresses
Authors BEOM JIN KIM, INSUNG CHOI*
Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea
Abstract Cell encapsulation, forming cell-in-shell structures, provides a chemical tool for the isolation and protection of living cells from harmful, and often lethal, external environments. The nanometric shell provides exogenous properties that are neither innate nor naturally achievable, and enhanced tolerance in vitro against lethal factors in real-life settings. Herein, we introduce simple strategies for forming cell-in-shell structures. First, we developed a simple polydopamine coating for obtaining cytoprotective capability of the alginate microbead that encapsulated Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The resulting alginate/polydopamine core/shell microbeads was mechanically tough, prevented gel swelling and cell leakage, and increased resistance against enzymatic attack and UV-C irradiation. Next, we reported the interfacial supramolecular self-assembly and shell formation of ferric ions (FeIII) and tannic acid (TA) for cell encapsulation, where FeIII and TA come into contact each other and self-assemble across the interface of two immiscible phases. The interfacial shell formation developed is simple, fast, and cytocompatible. Its versatility is demonstrated with various biphasic systems: hollow microcapsules, encasing microbial or mammalian cells that are generated at the water-oil interface; a cytoprotective FeIII-TA shell that forms on the surface of the alginate microbead, which then entraps probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus; and a pericellular FeIII-TA shell that forms on individual Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These simple strategies for cell encapsulation will advance chemical manipulability of living cells.
E-mail kimbj20@kaist.ac.kr