Glycogen, a naturally sourced highly branched polysaccharide nanoparticle, has been receiving attention in the field of nanomedicine due to its inherent non-toxicity and biodegradability. However, often in the literature glycogen nanoparticles (NPs) are used that come from different commercial sources (animals and tissues), which have significantly different sizes, molecular weights, and protein content, meaning a comprehensive overview of the interactions of these differently-sourced NPs with the human immune system is missing. Herein, we investigated coagulation, immune cell association and inflammation responses triggered by source-dependent interactions of glycogen NPs in human blood, utilising four types of commercially available glycogen: phytoglycogen (PG) isolated from sweet corn kernels, oyster glycogen (OG), rabbit liver glycogen (RLG), and bovine liver glycogen (BLG). Our results reveal that glycogen NPs exhibit minimal immune cell association, low complement factor, granulocyte, and platelet activation, and have no impact on blood clotting. This is despite the significant physico-chemical differences between the NP types, and when studied at exceptionally high particle concentrations (orders of magnitude higher than other typically studied synthetic systems). Given the similarities in the interactions with blood, either of the commercial glycogens can be leveraged in nanomedicine with respect to immuno-interactions, though PG provides a sustainable and ethically sourced form of NPs from plants. Together, our results highlight a key benefit of using glycogen NPs as injectable biomaterials for therapeutic applications.

中文翻译：

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糖原纳米颗粒与人体血液的相互作用


糖原是一种天然来源的高支链多糖纳米颗粒，由于其固有的无毒和可生物降解性，在纳米医学领域一直受到关注。然而，在文献中，经常使用来自不同商业来源（动物和组织）的糖原纳米颗粒 （NP），它们的大小、分子量和蛋白质含量明显不同，这意味着缺少这些不同来源的 NP 与人体免疫系统相互作用的全面概述。在此，我们利用四种类型的市售糖原研究了由人血液中糖原 NP 的来源依赖性相互作用引发的凝血、免疫细胞关联和炎症反应：从甜玉米粒中分离的植物糖原 （PG）、牡蛎糖原 （OG）、兔肝糖原 （RLG） 和牛肝糖原 （BLG）。我们的结果表明，糖原 NPs 表现出最小的免疫细胞结合、低补体因子、粒细胞和血小板活化，并且对血液凝固没有影响。尽管 NP 类型之间存在显着的物理化学差异，并且在极高的颗粒浓度（比其他通常研究的合成系统高几个数量级）下进行研究。鉴于与血液相互作用的相似性，尽管 PG 提供了一种可持续且合乎道德的植物 NP 形式，但任何一种商业糖原都可以在纳米医学中用于免疫相互作用。总之，我们的结果强调了使用糖原 NP 作为治疗应用的可注射生物材料的关键优势。