Electrostatic microencapsulation of parathyroid cells as a tool for the investigation of cell's activity after transplantation

Parathyroid cells were entrapped in alginate beads using an electrostatic microcapsule generator and cultured for three weeks in a Chang medium. Microscopic analysis of cells in bead cross sections revealed that at the beginning of culturing the majority of more than 107 entrapped cells was strongly aggregated and concentrated in clusters of more than 200 cells on average. During the culture period the number of aggregates decreased and the number of small clusters increased but the total number of cells did not change significantly. Concentration of parathyroid hormone outside the beads decreased gradually from the initial value of more than 2700 ng/ml to zero during three weeks. The reasons for this behaviour and relevance of results for evaluation of the activity of transplanted parathyroid cells are currently being investigated.