ALGINATE-POLYLYSINE MICROCAPSULES OF CONTROLLED MEMBRANE MOLECULAR-WEIGHT CUTOFF FOR MAMMALIAN-CELL CULTURE ENGINEERING

Microencapsulation, hybridoma cells were grown and monoclonal antibody was entrapped within microcapsules, which had a controlled membrane molecular weight cutoff. It was shown that using the alginate-poly-l-lysine (PLL) microcapsule system and protein diffusion experiments, the capsule membrane molecular weight cutoff could be controlled from 20 multiplied by 10**3 to 300 multiplied by 10**3. This was achieved by increasing the viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) of the PLL, used in the encapsulation procedure, from 14 multiplied by 10**3 to 525 multiplied by 10**3 and by decreasing the alginate - PLL reaction time from 40 minutes to 6 minutes. Cell culture studies with microencapsulated mouse hybridoma cells are discussed.