Preparation of alginate-beads for cell encapsulation
- Alginate bead post-FDA/PI-staining (10x)
Alginate, the salt of the alginic acid, is a natural, biocompatible hydrophilic substance and often used in research areas like cell culture. After adding divalent cations e.g. Ca2+ the alginate is forming a hydrogel.
In the project below, trials of forming alginate beads with embedded HeLa-cells were executed by squeezing the gel out of a syringe. Gaining dimensionally stable beads at high cell viability was the main goal of the students here.
[Sandra Gillmann, Dorothee Herborn, Nicolai Maier - SS 2015]