Adherence to silk matrices leads to improved <i>in vitro</i> islet maintenance with preserved endothelial cells.

<p><b>(A)</b> Representative (<i>n = 5</i>) micrographs of islets after 2 weeks in control wells (left), on WT foam (middle) and on RGD foam (right). Scale bars = 50 μm. <b>(B)</b> Upper graph: Percentage of amount of islets with intact islet architecture after 2 weeks free floating in control wells or adhered to silk foam (WT, RGD, IKVAV, YIGSR and RGE). Lower graph: Mean value of necrotic bodies per islets after 2 weeks in control wells or on foam. Islets on WT, RGD and IKVAV foam showed less necrotic bodies compared to control (<i>n = 5</i>, <i>in duplicates</i> **<i>p≤0</i>.<i>01</i>). <b>(C)</b> Representative (<i>n = 3</i>) maximum intensity projection (MIP) micrographs of pancreatic mouse islets at the day of isolation (upper panel) and after 2 weeks in culture (lower panel). Insulin staining is shown in green and the endothelial marker CD31 is shown in red. Scale bars = 50 μm. <b>(D)</b> Percentage of islets with preserved endothelial cells (CD31-positive stained islets) after 2 weeks in culture (<i>data pooled from 3 experiments</i>, <i>in total 22 islets</i> *<i>p≤0</i>.<i>05)</i>.