Functional cell selective microparticles as injectable cell carriers for tissue engineering applications

The success of many stem cell applications in the biomedical field is highly dependent from efficient separation techniques for isolation and purification of cell populations with a very high yield and purity. Effective strategies to select subsets of cells, decreasing cell manipulation and expansion time to obtain large quantities of a particular cell type are urgently needed. Microcarrier culture system offers the advantage of providing a larger surface area for the growth of anchorage-dependent cells. Several microcarrirers have been used for cell expansion however none of the existing systems is able to select specific cell types from a heterogeneous population. Our group developed chitosan films grafted with antibodies for selective cell attachment. Herein we present chitosan microparticles (μPs) able to capture a specific cell types based in the concept of antibody coating. Such system acts also as a carrier for cell expansion of a specific cell population and may be used to directly deliver cells in vivo to repair and regenerate tissues.