Building fucoidan/agarose-based hydrogels as a platform for the development of therapeutic approaches against diabetes

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-06, Vol.28 (11), p.1-23
• Main Authors: Reys, Lara Priscila Lopes, Silva, SS, Soares da Costa, Diana, Rodrigues, Luísa Cidália Guimarães, Reis, R. L., Silva, Tiago H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agarose; Algae; Aqueous solutions; Beta cells; Biomaterials; Biomedical materials; Biopolymers; Cartilage; Cell encapsulation; Cell walls; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Encapsulation; Fucoidan; Glucose; Growth factors; Hydrogels; Insulin; Islets of Langerhans; Marine biomaterials; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; Pancreas; Pancreatic beta cells; Polymers; Polysaccharides; Rheological properties; Rheology; Saccharides; Seaweeds; Shear stress; Temperature; Thermal gelation; Viscoelasticity; Viscosity
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules28114523

Current management for diabetes has stimulated the development of versatile 3D-based hydrogels as in vitro platforms for insulin release and as support for the encapsulation of pancreatic cells and islets of Langerhans. This work aimed to create agarose/fucoidan hydrogels to encapsulate pancreatic cells as a potential biomaterial for diabetes therapeutics. The hydrogels were produced by combining fucoidan (Fu) and agarose (Aga), marine polysaccharides derived from the cell wall of brown and red seaweeds, respectively, and a thermal gelation process. The agarose/fucoidan (AgaFu) blended hydrogels were obtained by dissolving Aga in 3 or 5 wt % Fu aqueous solutions to obtain different proportions (4:10; 5:10, and 7:10 wt). The rheological tests on hydrogels revealed a non-Newtonian and viscoelastic behavior, while the characterization confirmed the presence of the two polymers in the structure of the hydrogels. In addition, the mechanical behavior showed that increasing Aga concentrations resulted in hydrogels with higher Youngâ s modulus. Further, the ability of the developed materials to sustain the viability of human pancreatic cells was assessed by encapsulation of the 1.1B4HP cell line for up to 7 days. The biological assessment of the hydrogels revealed that cultured pancreatic beta cells tended to self-organize and form pseudo-islets during the period studied. This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of individual fellowships/contracts (SFRH/BD/112139/2015, and SFRH/BPD/93697/ 2013, SFRH/BPD/85790/2012 and CEECIND/01306/2018) and research projects (PTDC/CTMCTM//29813/2017 and PTDC/BII-BIO/31570/2017); by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the scope of Structured Projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000021 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023; and by European Union Transborder Cooperation Program Interreg España-Portugal 2014-2020 (POCTEP), under the scope of project 0302_CVMAR_I_1_P.