ArticleActa biomaterialia2017
One step fabrication of hydrogel microcapsules with hollow core for assembly and cultivation of hepatocyte spheroids.
Article in Acta biomaterialia, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A comprehensive review of advances in hepatocyte microencapsulation: selecting materials and preserving cell viability.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Cell assays in microcompartments driven by droplet microfluidics and hydrogel technologies.Journal of biochemistry · 2026Review
- Multicompartment hydrogel microcapsules for creating spatially patterned cell co-cultures.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Article
- Recent advances in bioactive hydrogel microspheres: Material engineering strategies and biomedical prospects.Materials today. Bio · 2025Review
- Designing magnetic microcapsules for cultivation and differentiation of stem cell spheroids.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2024Article
- Lab on a Particle Technologies.Analytical chemistry · 2024Review
- Hollow microgels and their hybrids: classification, synthesis, characterization, properties and applications.Reviews in chemical engineering · 2024Article
- Continuous Production of Highly Functional Vascularized Hepatobiliary Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells using a Scalable Microfluidic Platform.Advanced functional materials · 2023Article
- Mass production of lumenogenic human embryoid bodies and functional cardiospheres using in-air-generated microcapsules.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Function of hepatocyte spheroids in bioactive microcapsules is enhanced by endogenous and exogenous hepatocyte growth factor.Bioactive materials · 2023Article
- Polymeric microcarriers for minimally-invasive cell delivery.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2023Review
- Microfluidic Formulation of Topological Hydrogels for Microtissue Engineering.Chemical reviews · 2022Review
- Agarose gel microcapsules enable easy-to-prepare, picolitre-scale, single-cell genomics, yielding high-coverage genome sequences.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Bioactive hydrogel microcapsules for guiding stem cell fate decisions by release and reloading of growth factors.Bioactive materials · 2022Article
- In vitro proliferation and long-term preservation of functional primary rat hepatocytes in cell fibers.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Multiparametric Material Functionality of Microtissue-Based In Vitro Models as Alternatives to Animal Testing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022Review
- Alginate Core-Shell Capsules for 3D Cultivation of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Research Dynamics of Tissue Spheroids as Building Blocks: A Scientometric Analysis.International journal of bioprinting · 2022Article
- Engineering Modular 3D Liver Culture MicroenvironmentsAdvanced nanobiomed research · 2022Article
- Core-shell hydrogel microcapsules enable formation of human pluripotent stem cell spheroids and their cultivation in a stirred bioreactor.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
3D hepatic microtissues can serve as valuable liver analogues for cell-based therapies and for hepatotoxicity screening during preclinical drug development. However, hepatocytes rapidly dedifferentiate in vitro, and typically require 3D culture systems or co-cultures for phenotype rescue. In this work we present a novel microencapsulation strategy, utilizing coaxial flow-focusing droplet microfluidics to fabricate microcapsules with liquid core and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) gel shell. When entrapped inside these capsules, primary hepatocytes rapidly formed cell-cell contacts and assembled into compact spheroids. High levels of hepatic function were maintained inside the capsules for over ten days. The microencapsulation approach described here is compatible with difficult-to-culture primary epithelial cells, allows for tuning gel mechanical properties and diffusivity, and may be used in the future for high density suspension cell cultures. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Our paper combines an interesting new way for making capsules with cultivation of difficult-to-maintain primary epithelial cells (hepatocytes). The microcapsules described here will enable high density suspension culture of hepatocytes or other cells and may be used as building blocks for engineering tissues.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.