Atelocollagen is a major animal protein that is used as a highly biocompatible biomaterial. To date, atelocollagen has been used\r\nas an effective drug delivery technology to sustain the release of antitumor proteins and to enhance the antitumor activity of\r\noligonucleotides in in vivo models. However, the biological effects of this technology are not fully understood. In the present\r\nstudy, we investigated the effects of atelocollagen on endothelial paracellular barrier function. An atelocollagen formulation\r\ncontaining oligonucleotides specifically increased the permeability of two types of endothelial cells, and the change was dependent\r\non the molecular size, structure of the oligonucleotides used and the concentrations of the oligonucleotide and atelocollagen in\r\nthe formulation. An immunohistochemical examination revealed that the formulation had effects on the cellular skeleton and\r\nintercellular structure although it did not affect the expression of adherens junction or tight junction proteins. These changes were\r\ninduced through p38 MAP kinase signaling. It is important to elucidate the biological functions of atelocollagen in order to be\r\nable to exploit its drug delivery properties.
Loading....