Advances in single mammalian cells encapsulation technologies

Cell encapsulation technology involves the immobilization of cells in a semipermeable membrane or a hydrogel. The encapsulation shell can effectively prevent immune cells, antibodies, enzymes, and other large-sized substances from attacking the encapsulated cells while allowing the free exchange of small-sized substances such as oxygen, nutrients, and metabolites. Cell encapsulation technology offers numerous benefits in the field of biomaterials, biomedicines, and life sciences. Single cell encapsulation technology, which involves coating individual living cells with semipermeable encapsulation shells, has many advantages over the traditional cell encapsulation technology, including higher encapsulation efficiency, thinner encapsulation shell, and higher encapsulation stability. Single cell encapsulation systems also have significant advantages in improving the exchange efficiency of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolites, maintaining cell viability and functions, and studying cell biochemistry at the single cell level. This article reviews the recent advances in single mammalian cells encapsulation technologies. We examine the research progress of single-cell micro/nano-encapsulation and their applications in cell therapies, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, single-cell biological analysis, and whole-cell sensors. Finally, the existing issues and future prospects of this field are summarized and discussed.