Cytocompatibility studies of mouse pancreatic islets on gelatin--PVP semi IPN scaffolds in vitro: potential implication towards pancreatic tissue engineering.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disorder that results due to auto immune destruction of insulin producing cells, which leads to hyperglycemia in the blood. The development of an ideal scaffold for maintaining the structure and function of islets is a challenge in the field of pancreatic tissue engineering. In this study, gelatin (G) as well as gelatin / PVP (GP) semi interpenetrating polymer network scaffolds have been fabricated by freeze drying technique and cross linked with gluteraldehyde (GTA) and 1-Ethyl-3-[3-dimethylaminopropyl] carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC), which was abbreviated as GG, GPG (cross linked with GTA) GE, and GPE (cross linked with EDC). The presence of gelatin and PVP in GPE and GPG scaffolds was confirmed through FTIR and TGA. The medium uptake ability of GPE and GPG scaffolds were higher than GG and GE scaffolds. The scaffolds were then analyzed for its ability to maintain the viability and function of mouse pancreatic islet cells in vitro. The results showed that the islets can adhere, but it tends to lose the structure and function on all the scaffolds after day 7, except on GPE where they remained intact up to day 30. Thus the present study clearly demonstrates that gelatin incorporated with PVP and cross linked with EDC scaffolds could support and maintain islet cells for prolonged period.