Microencapsulation of growth factors by microfluidic system

Lilith M Caballero-Aguilar; Serena Duchi; Anita Quigley; Carmine Onofrillo; Claudia Di Bella; Simon E Moulton

doi:10.1016/j.mex.2021.101324

Microencapsulation of growth factors by microfluidic system

MethodsX. 2021 Mar 28:8:101324. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2021.101324. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lilith M Caballero-Aguilar^{1

2}, Serena Duchi^{2

3

4}, Anita Quigley^{4

5

6}, Carmine Onofrillo^{2

3

4}, Claudia Di Bella^{2

3

4

7}, Simon E Moulton^{1

2

8}

Affiliations

¹ ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria 3122, Australia.
² BioFab3D, Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
³ Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Clinical Sciences Building, 29 Regent Street, 3065 Fitzroy, VIC, Australia.
⁴ ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
⁵ Department of Clinical Neurosciences, 5th Floor Daly Wing, St. Vincent's Hospital, 3065 Fitzroy, VIC, Australia.
⁶ Department of Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, 3065 Fitzroy, VIC, Australia.
⁷ Department of Orthopaedics, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, 3065 Fitzroy, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia.

Abstract

The encapsulation of growth factors is an important component of tissue engineer- ing. Using microspheres is a convenient approach in which the dose of factors can be regulated by increasing or decreasing the number of encapsulated microspheres. Moreover, microspheres offer the possibility of delivering the growth factors directly to the target site. However, the fabrication of microspheres by traditional emulsion methods is largely variable due to the experimental procedure. We have developed a protocol using a commercially available microfluidic system that allows formation of tunable particle-size droplets loaded with growth factors. The methodology includes a guide for preparing an alginate-growth factors solution followed by the specific set-up needed for using the microfluidic system to form the microspheres. The pro- cedure also includes a unique post-crosslinking process without pH modification. These methods allow the preservation of integrity and bioactivity of the growth factors tested (BMP-6 and TGFβ -3) and their subsequent sustained delivery.•The protocol can be tuned to form particles of various sizes.•The gentle post-crosslinking process allows conformational integrity of various bioactive molecules.

Keywords: Growth Factors; Microencapsulation; Microfluidics; Microspheres.