In vitro evaluation of newly developed adsorbent for selective removal of glycosylated low-density lipoprotein.

Chronic hyperglycemia leads to the accumulation of nonenzymatically derived glycosylation products on proteins. Such glycosylation products, especially glycosylated low-density lipoprotein (glc-LDL), have been increasingly recognized as factors in the pathogeneses of diabetic complications. A new adsorbent was developed for the selective removal of glc-LDL from plasma. The adsorbent has dual ligands in order to improve the specific binding affinity for glc-LDL that consisted of boronic acid moiety for the glycosylated site and acrylic acid (AA) moiety for the apolipoprotein B of LDL. The adsorbent was synthesized by copolymerization of 4-vinyl phenyl boronic acid and AA. Five kinds of copolymers having different compositions were prepared and evaluated in terms of glc-LDL in vitro adsorption in human plasma. The adsorption behaviors were different depending on the polymer composition. The adsorbent having the AA composition from 50% to 90% showed very high selectivity for glc-LDL adsorption. The capability of selective adsorption was not impaired in human plasma. These results suggested that the adsorbent would be a promising material for glc-LDL apheresis.