Abstract

Ex vivo expansion of endocrine cells constitutes an interesting alternative to be able to match the unmet need of transplantable pancreatic islets. However, endocrine cells become fragile once removed from their extracellular matrix (ECM) and typically become senescent and loose insulin expression during conventional 2D culture. Herein we develop a protocol where 3D silk matrices functionalized with ECM derived motifs are used for generation of insulin-secreting islet-like clusters from mouse and human primary cells. The obtained clusters were shown to attain an islet-like spheroid shape and to maintain functional insulin release upon glucose stimulation in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo imaging of transplanted murine clusters showed engraftment with increasing vessel formation during time. There was no sign of cell death and the clusters maintained or increased in size throughout the period, thus suggesting a suitable cluster size for transplantation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Recombinant spider silk; Pancreatic islets; Islet-like clusters; Insulin release; In vivo imaging; Vascularization

Published in

Biomaterials
2016, Volume: 90, pages: 50-61
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Hedhammar, My

  • Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG3 Good health and well-being


UKÄ Subject classification

Biomaterials Science


Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.03.006

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/82883