Molecular Biocompatibility Evaluation of Poly-L-Ornithine-Coated Alginate Microcapsules by Investigating mRNA Expression of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines

Following a polyelectrolytical complex reaction, the poly-L-ornithine (PLO)-alginate microcapsules were prepared by coating PLO on calcium alginate beads which were produced by a high-voltage electrostatic droplet generator. The biocompatibility of the microcapsules at the molecular level was evaluated through investigating the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines; that is, the effect of the PLO coating of alginate beads on the mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were measured using the RT-PCR method. The resulting PLO-coated alginate microcapsules have a smooth surface with a mean diameter of 309µm. The molecular biocompatibility studies show that coating microcapsules with PLO has no significant effect on the biocompatibility of alginate microcapsules (p>0.05), and both alginate microcapsules and PLO-coated microcapsules are significantly different from the positive control (p<0.05); however, both are also capable of causing an inflammatory response at a molecular level since both are significantly different from the blank control (p<0.05). Furthermore, with the increase in concentration of microcapsules or co-cultured time, part of the mRNA expression of cytokines is significantly increased. The results also demonstrate that the method used in this study, co-incubating the microcapsules with macrophages and measuring the mRNA expression of cytokines by RT-PCR, may be a useful method for evaluating the biocompatibility of coating materials of microcapsules.