The effects of cell density on viability within PEGDA hydrogel microspheres

Cell microencapsulation can be used in tissue engineering as a scaffold or a physical barrier that provides immunoisolation for donor cells. Microencapsulation shields cells from the host immune system when they are delivered into the body for cell therapies. In order to maximize the delivery of therapeutic product per volume of microencapsulated cells, we must first optimize the seeding density of our hydrogel microspheres. In this study we microencapsulate mouse preosteoblast cells (MC3T3-E1) within poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate hydrogel microspheres at low, medium, and high seeding densities in order to assess the viability of these cells as a function of cell density.