Evaluation of biomaterial scaffold delivery of IL-33 as a localized immunomodulatory agent to support cell transplantation in adipose tissue

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Introduction The development of novel immunomodulatory strategies that might decrease the need for systemic immune suppression would greatly enable the utility of cell-based therapies. Cell transplantation on biomaterial scaffolds offers a unique opportunity to engineer a site to locally polarize immunogenic antigen generation. Herein, we investigated the localized delivery of IL-33, which is a novel cytokine that has been shown to have beneficial immunomodulatory effects in certain transplant models as mediating anti-inflammatory properties in the adipose tissue, to determine its feasibility for use as an immunomodulatory agent. Results Localized IL-33 delivery from poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG) scaffolds implanted into the epididymal fat specifically increased the Foxp3+ population of CD4+ T cells in both blank scaffold implants and scaffolds seeded with allogeneic islets. In allogeneic islet transplantation, we found IL-33 delivery results in a local upregulation of graft-protective T cells where 80% of the local CD4+ population is Foxp3+ and overall numbers of graft destructive CD8+ T cells are decreased, resulting in a prolonged graft survival. Interestingly, local IL-33 also delayed islet engraftment by primarily inducing a local upregulation of Th2 cytokines, including IL-4 and IL-5, leading to increased populations of ST2+ Type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) and Sig

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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