Adhesion of human intervertebral disk cells on alginate/PLGA microspheres

PLGA microspheres have been known as an injectable system for tissue engineering. The purpose of this study was to investigate the condition of emulsion formation and cell adhesion on the microsphere surface. BSA-loaded PLGA microsphere was fabricated by oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) solvent evaporation method. Sodium alginate was dissolved in water phase to control initial burst release and to improve lag time by PLGA bulk degradation. In addition, the morphology of cells attached on the microspheres was studied using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cellular proliferation behavior of human disc cells cultivated on PLGA microspheres was analyzed using a MTT assay. MTT assay revealed that the cells can attach and proliferate on PLGA microspheres. According to these results, we concluded that BSA-loaded alginate/PLGA microspheres can be used as an injectable system for tissue engineering application.