Oxidative stress in pancreatic alpha and beta cells as a selection criterion for biocompatible biomaterials

The clinical success of islet transplantation is limited by factors including inflammation that leads to graft failure, acute ischemia, stress upon transplantation, and insufficient vascularization. The ischemia and insufficient vascularization both lead to high levels of oxidative stress, which are further aggravated by islet encapsulation to decrease inflammation and undesirable cell-biomaterial interactions. To identify biomaterials that would not further increase damaging oxidative stress levels and that are also suitable for manufacturing a beta cell encapsulation device, we studied five clinically approved polymers for their effect on oxidative stress and islet (alpha and beta cell) function. We found that 300 poly(ethylene oxide terephthalate) 55/poly(butylene terephthalate) 45 (PEOT/PBT300) was more resistant to breakage and more elastic than other biomaterials, which is important for its immunoprotective function. In addition, it did not induce oxidative stress or reduce viability in MIN6 beta cells, and even promoted protective endogenous antioxidant expression over 7 days. Importantly, PEOT/PBT300 is one of the biomaterials we studied that did not interfere with insulin secretion in human islets. These data support that PEOT/PBT300 as a suitable biomaterial for an islet encapsulation device.