Biological sensitivity to self-assembled nanomatrix platforms depends on the phenotype of MIN6 beta -cells

• Published in: Micro & nano letters Vol. 6; no. 8; p. 619
• Main Authors: Lim, D-J, Antipenko, S V, Andukuri, A, Corbett, J A, Jun, H-W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2011
• Subjects: Biological; Electrochemical machining; Insulin; Ligands; Nanostructure; Peptides; Platforms; Scaffolds; Transplantation
• ISSN: 1750-0443
• DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2011.0026

Pancreatic beta -cell lines that possess the same native characteristics as insulin producing beta -cells within islets of Langerhans have been widely used to evaluate newly developed scaffolds for the ultimate purpose of improving pancreatic islet transplantation. To investigate the influence of the aged MIN6 beta -cells in properly assessing a given scaffold, self-assembled nanomatrix platforms formed by peptide amphiphiles that mimic native extracellular matrices (ECM) were made, and MIN6 beta -cells of different subcultures were cultured for up to seven days. Compared to young MIN6 beta -cells, old MIN6 beta -cells showed reduced sensitivity in function to the self-assembled nanomatrix platform containing RGDS ligands. Young MIN6 beta -cells displayed higher normalised insulin values than old MIN6 beta -cells, indicating that the apparent functional performance of ECM-mimicking platforms depends not only on the ECM-mimicking ligands present, but also on the condition of cells used to evaluate the ECM-mimicking platform. Moreover, the morphological differences were observed between young and old MIN6 beta -cells.