Pravdyuk O. Cryopreservation of human mesenchymal stromal cells, encapsulated to alginate microspheres.

Research object were mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) encapsulated into alginate microspheres prior to and after cryopreservation. The aim is to reveal the effect of encapsulation into alginate microspheres and further cryopreservation on viability and differential potential of human mesenchymal stromal cells. Research methods were the ones of slow and rapid freezing, monolayer and volume culturing of MSCs in vitro, light, luminescent and confocal scanning microscopy, fluorescent spectroscopy, statistical analysis. For the first time it has been shown that alginate gel does not manifest the cryoprotective effect in respect to encapsulated human mesenchymal stromal cells during rapid freezing. It has been firstly established that initiation of crystal formation during slow programmable freezing prevents critical overcooling of cell cytoplasm and allows the obtaining of high preservation indices and metabolic activity of encapsulated cells. For the first time there was demonstrated the ability of mesenchymal stromal cells encapsulated into alginate microspheres to induced differentiation towards chondrogenic, osteogenic and adipogenic lineages. The notions about implementation of general biological and specific properties of human mesenchymal stromal cells during 3D culturing prior to and after cryopreservation have been elucidated.