Engineers make injectable tissue a reality

Doctors and patients have long dreamed of a simple injection that could help the damaged tissue to regrow. A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Okanagan brings this dream closer to reality with a device that makes cell encapsulation much faster, cheaper and more efficient.

"The idea of ​​injecting different types of tissue cells is not new," said Keekyoung Kim, an assistant professor of engineering at UBC Okanagan and co-author of the study. . "It's an attractive concept because by introducing cells into damaged tissue, we can overload the body's processes to regenerate and repair an injury."

Kim says that everything from fractures to torn ligaments could benefit from this type of approach and suggests that even whole organs could be repaired as technology evolves.

The problem, he says, is that the cells themselves are delicate and tend not to survive when they are injected directly into the body.

"It appeared that to ensure the survival of the cells, they had to be covered with a coating protecting them from physical damage and the body's immune system," says Mohamed Gamal, PhD student in biomedical engineering and senior author of the # 39; study. "But it was extremely difficult to achieve this type of cell encapsulation, which until now was done in a very expensive, time-consuming and tedious process."

Kim and Gamal solved this problem by developing an automated encapsulation device that encapsulates a large number of cells in a microgel with the help of a specialized blue laser and purifies them to produce a clean sample and usable in just a few minutes. The advantage of their system is that over 85% of the cells survive and the process can be easily scaled up.

"Research in this area has been hampered by the cost and lack of availability of mass-encapsulated microgels mass produced," Kim said. "We have solved this problem and our system could rapidly provide thousands, if not tens of thousands of cell-encapsulated microgels, supercharging this area of ​​bioengineering."

Gamal added that, in addition to developing a fast and efficient system, the equipment is composed of easily available and inexpensive components.

"Any lab doing this kind of work could set up a similar system of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, which is quite affordable for lab equipment," Gamal said.

The team is already studying the next step, which will involve integrating different types of stem cells – cells that have not yet differentiated into specific tissue types – into microgels, alongside proteins or hormones. specialized, called growth factors. The idea would be to help stem cells become an appropriate tissue type once they are injected.

"I'm really excited to see where this technology will go next and what our encapsulated stem cells are capable of."

The study was published in the journal Lab on a chip.