Sercan Mercan and Fatma Arslan
Gazi University, Turkey
Aziz Sancar Research Center, Turkey
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Type 1 Diabetes mellitus is an auto-immune disease in which the immune system is activated to destroy the pancreatic beta cells. The transplantation of pancreatic islet cells from human cadaver donor to patients is a successful treatment method on condition of using immunosuppressive drugs. However, long term use of immunosuppressive drugs has some adverse side effects. So, transplantation of these islet cells after masking the antigens on the cells surface can solve this problem. Poly amino acids are used in many biomedical areas. In this study, biocompatible poly-L-glutamic acid (PLGA) was used for surface modification of islet cells. Covalent interactions were provided with PLGA polymer. For this, carboxylic acid groups contained in this polymer was activated and their structures were elucidated by FT-IR and NMR analysis. The amide bond-forming was provided between these activated polymers and amine groups of lysine amino acid residues on the islet cell surface. In-vitro viability of islet cells and insulin secretion were assessed in both control and experimental group as a response of exposure to cytokine combination. Optimum PLGA concentration was found 2mg/mL. Viability and insulin secretion results of surface modification group islet cells with 48 hours cytokine exposure (%59.1; 6.8) were better than islet cells of control group (%47.7; 4.7) (p<0.001). Islet cells, obtained from rats were transplanted to diabetic mice. Surface modification has provided protection against immune response which was determined with monitoring blood glucose level. This method can be considered a promising method for islet cell transplantation.
Email: sercanmrcn@gmail.com
