Ioanna Sandvig

One of the main challenges in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is the ability tomaintain optimal cell function and survival post-transplantation and to protect the transplantedcells from immune responses and rejection in the host-tissue microenvironment. Biomaterialssuch as alginates can be utilised for immunoisolation, while they may also provide structuralsupport to the cell transplants by mimicking the extracellular matrix. In the present study, weproduced RGD-peptide coupled, stable alginates of variable flexibility by adopting a uniquestrategy for controlling the peptide coupling and G-content of the alginates. We characterisedthe alginates and proceeded to test their interactions with olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs)and myoblasts in 2D and 3D cultures. We found that RGD-peptide modified alginates induceddistinct cell-substrate interactions, demonstrated as marked morphological changes in 2Dcultures of OECs and myoblasts, and partially enhanced survival, compared to unmodified andcontrol alginates. 3D cultures, however, did not demonstrate substantial benefits of RGD-modification in terms of improved encapsulated cell viability. Taken together, our findingssuggest that further modification, for example, by coupling more RGD peptide to the alginateand/or reducing the rigidity of the 3D network, might be necessary in order to significantlyenhance the survival of encapsulated OECs and myoblasts, with a view to future transplantationstudies.