Transplantation of microencapsulated insulin secreting
cells is proposed as a promising therapy for the
treatment of type I diabetes mellitus. In recent years,
important advances have been made in the field of
immunoisolation and many studies have shown that alginate
provides some major advantages for encapsulation over
other systems. Since it is known that the extracellular matrix
influences the behaviour of encapsulated cells, the aim of the
present work has been to study the consequences of
encapsulation on some cell functions. For this purpose, cell
growth and dynamics of insulin release of NIT-1 cells
entrapped in alginate capsules compared with those
exhibited by free NIT-1 cells were investigated by means of
growth curves, assays, Trypan blue staining and ELISA test.
All investigations performed allowed us to conclude that
alginate-entrapped NIT-1 cells maintain their growth
features and secretory functions although with some
important differences. In particular, alginate encapsulation
affects the cellular growth profile and causes the lost of time
dependence of insulin secretion profile.
