Objective

Atelerix have developed a novel hydrogel encapsulation technique for the transportation and shipment of viable cells at room temperature, allowing for an alternative to cryopreservation of cells. Using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, Censo have developed a robust methodology for the differentiation of iPSC-derived microglia. In collaboration with Atelerix, iPSC-derived microglia have been successfully encapsulated, stored, shipped and recovered with no functional differences when compared to non-encapsulated controls. iPSC-derived microglia are differentiated via mesoderm induction and formation of a hemangioblast which releases microglia-like cells, producing >10⁹ cells over a period of 2 months. Atelerix technology was used to encapsulate and store both hemangioblasts and microglia-like cells for 5 days at room temperature and upon release, these were compared to non-encapsulated counterparts. Following recovery, microglia-like cells had over 85% viability, retained expression of key cell surface markers and were able to uptake fluorescently labelled beta amyloid demonstrating no effect on cell function. In addition, hemangioblasts were shown to continue release of microglia-like cells after 8 days following recovery, and cells produced had a similar cell surface expression profile of CD14, CD16 and CD11b to cells which had not been encapsulated. This technology offers a novel method of storing and transporting cells without the need for cryopreservation, thus avoiding cell activation or loss of cells on thaw.