Identification of adsorbing human plasma proteins on alginate gel beads

The biocompatibility of immunoisolation devices is a major challenge for their use in cellular therapies. Utilisation of alginate for the encapsulation of pancreatic islets as a potential cellular therapy for type 1 diabetes has shown to be limited in terms of long-term graft survival, due to pericapsular fibrotic overgrowth. Fibrotic overgrowth is a complex process that involves several factors, including protein adsorption. This work investigates the protein adsorption profiles of plasma incubated alginate beads for the identification of key proteins that may play a role in the biocompatibility of this biomaterial.