Chemical method for retrieval of cells encapsulated in alginate-polyethersulfone microcapsules

We present a method for retrieval of cells encapsulated in alginate-polyethersulfone (AP) microcapsules. AP microcapsules consist of alginate hydrogel core and a semi-permeable polymer membrane. Proposed method is based on chemical destruction of microcapsule structure that is, polymer membranes are removed by dissolution in 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone subsequently the cells immobilized in the cores are released by liquefaction of alginate gel. The viability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells retrieved by this technique exceeds 98%, while the concentration of recovered cells reaches 98%-102% of cell concentration in suspension used for microencapsulation, which proves that proposed method allows to effectively and quantitatively retrieve encapsulated cells without compromising their viability.