The effect of hyaluronic acid on insulin secretion in HIT-T15 cells through the enhancement of gap-junctional intercellular communications

The transplantation of bioartificial pancreas has the potential to restore endogenous insulin secretion in type I diabetes. The bioartificial pancreas is constructed in vitro from cells and a support matrix. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is an extremely ubiquitous polysaccharide of extracellular matrix in the body and plays various biological roles. It has been suggested that high molecular weight (HMW) HA increases in the function of gap-junctional intercellular communications (GJIC) and the expression of connexin-43 (Cx43). To determine whether the function of pancreatic β-cells is affected by gap junctions after HMW HA-treatment, we exposed HIT-T15, a clonal pancreatic β-cell line, in various concentrations of HA for 24 h, and then detected the insulin secretion and content, using an insulin assay kit by ELISA technique. The cellular functions of GJIC were assayed by dye-transfer method using the dye solution of Lucifer yellow. HA-treatment resulted in the enhancement of GJIC function, the increase of insulin release and insulin content. The results obtained in this study suggest that HA-coating increases the insulin secretion of HIT-T15 cells by the enhancement of Cx43-mediated GJIC. The results give useful information on design biocompatibility of HA when is used as a biomaterial for bioartificial pancreas.