Microencapsulation of human cells: its effects on growth of normal and tumour cells in vitro

The growth kinetics of established human colorectal tumour cell lines (HT29, HT115 and COLO 320DM) and human diploid fibroblasts (Flow 2002) were studied in conventional culture and in microcapsules formed from alginate-poly(L-lysine)-alginate membranes. The tumour lines grew rapidly in microcapsules but, in the case of the substrate-adherent lines HT29 and HT115, only after a prolonged lag phase. This phase was reduced by serial passage in microcapsules. The anchorage-independent line COLO 320DM showed no lengthening in lag phase. Microencapsulated fibroblasts underwent negligible growth but remained viable. Some evidence for functional differentiation (microvilli, cell-cell junctions) of the tumour line HT115 within the microcapsules was observed. We conclude that the use of microcapsules provides an alternative system with some advantages for the study of human cancer and its metastases in vitro.