The influence of the anticomplement synthetic sulfonic polymers on the function of pancreatic islets: an in vitro study

In a previous experiment, we demonstrated the anticomplementary efficacy of poly(stryrene sulfonic acid) (PSSa) and poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS). The aim of this study was to examine their influence on the function of pancreatic islets in vitro. In this study, after culturing the rat islets with RPMI-1640 culture medium containing different concentrations of soluble PSSa or PAMPS for 24 h at 37 degrees C, we performed morphological and functional examination of the rat islets. We found that the islets maintained their normal morphology regardless of whether they were in the PSSa or PAMPS groups when the concentrations of soluble PSSa or PAMPS in the media were below 1 g/dl. In the static incubation study, the islets cultured in the PAMPS groups showed significantly high insulin secretory response to glucose challenge but those in the PSSa groups lost the response when the concentrations of soluble PSSa or PAMPS in the media were below 1 g/dl. The PAMPS not only had strong anticomplementry effect, but also maintained the good insulin secretory capacity of the islets. These results indicated that PAMPS is a promising bioartificial material for future clinical application of biohybrid artificial pancreas preparation. It is well suitable for xenotransplantation experiments.