JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments
Neuroscience
0 views • 3:08 min • July 8th, 2025
Take a suspension of cells that secrete neurotoxic amyloid-beta mixed with a biocompatible polymer.
Attach the syringe with the suspension to a microbead fabrication device, then push it through as a continuous liquid stream.
A vibration frequency in the device breaks the stream into uniform, micron-sized droplets.
These droplets pass through an electrostatic field and acquire uniform charges to repel each other, preventing merging.
The droplets then fall into a gelation bath containing calcium ions. The ions cross-link the polymer, encapsulating the cells in spherical microbeads.
Incubate the beads to complete gelation, then collect them on a filter.
Invert the filter over a tube, add a culture medium to wash the beads into the tube, and transfer the suspension to a flask containing the medium.
The polymer matrix allows nutrient access to support cell proliferation while enabling the slow release of amyloid-beta, mimicking the chronic accumulation seen in an Alzheimer’s diseased brain.
To fabricate the microbeads, in a 20-milliliters syringe, load five milliliters of the cell alginate suspension and attach a syringe to the encapsulator. To start the encapsulator, activ
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