The National Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Drugs and the Technologies, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330088, P. R. China.
College of Pharmacy, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Mar 24;13(11):12877-12887. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c23010. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
Islet transplantation is currently a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, the foreign body reaction and retrieval difficulty often lead to transplantation failure and hinder the clinical application. To address these two challenges, we propose a balanced charged sodium alginate-polyethyleneimine-melanin (SA-PEI-Melanin) threadlike hydrogel with immune shielding and retrievable properties. The attractiveness of this study lies in that the introduction of melanin can stimulate insulin secretion, especially under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. After demonstrating a good immune-shielding effect, we performed an transplantation experiment. The results showed that the blood glucose level in the SA-PEI-Melanin group was stably controlled below the diabetic blood glucose criterion, and this blood glucose level could be further adjusted after NIR irradiation. In addition, the evaluation after retrieving the SA-PEI-Melanin hydrogel indicated that the islets still maintained a normal physiological function, further proving its excellent immunological protection. This study provides a new approach for the accurate regulation of blood glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and contributes to developing a promising transplant system to reconcile real-time and precise light-defined insulin secretion regulation.
胰岛移植目前是治疗 1 型糖尿病的一种很有前途的方法。然而，异物反应和难以取出常常导致移植失败，从而阻碍了其临床应用。针对这两个挑战，我们提出了一种具有免疫屏蔽和可回收特性的平衡带电海藻酸钠-聚乙烯亚胺-黑色素（SA-PEI-Melanin）线状水凝胶。这项研究的吸引力在于黑色素的引入可以刺激胰岛素的分泌，尤其是在近红外（NIR）照射下。在证明了良好的免疫屏蔽效果后，我们进行了移植实验。结果表明，SA-PEI-Melanin 组的血糖水平稳定控制在糖尿病血糖标准以下，并且在 NIR 照射后可以进一步调整该血糖水平。此外，对 SA-PEI-Melanin 水凝胶进行回收后的评估表明，胰岛仍然保持正常的生理功能，进一步证明了其出色的免疫保护性能。这项研究为 1 型糖尿病患者的血糖精确调节提供了一种新方法，有助于开发一种有前途的移植系统，以协调实时和精确的光定义的胰岛素分泌调节。
