Effect of PEG Molecular Weight on Immunological response against PEGylated Pancreatic Islets

摘要

Graft rejection as the major obstacle in islettransplantation can be reduced by PEGylation ofpancreatic islets. In this study, the effect of polymermolecular weight (5 and 10 kDa) on immunologicalresponse of PEGylated islets was evaluated. It was foundthat the amount of IL-2 secreted from lymphocytes coculturedwith PEG coated islets decreased significantly byincreasing polymer molecular weight. Although thefunctionality of islets coated with 5 and 10 kDa PEG was92% and 86% of the functionality of free islets,respectively, the morphology and the viability of PEGgraftedislets were not affected by variation of polymermolecular weight.