[acb-diabetics] surgeons create workable pancreas cells

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

This article originally posted 10 October, 2010 and appeared in  

Medical Devices, 

Issue 543

 

Surgeons Create Functional Artificial Pancreatic Tissue

 

Surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, are reporting on a
whole new strategy for controlling insulin dependent diabetes without daily
injections

of insulin. The surgeons have bio-engineered a novel matrix that serves as a
scaffold for seeding supportive stem cells as well as pancreatic islets....

 

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In a proof-of-concept study presented at the 2010 Annual Clinical Congress
of the American College of Surgeons, the researchers note that the matrix
not

only helps to understand the micro-architecture of the pancreas, but also
prolongs the survival and preserves the function of the islets. Islets
survived

longer in the bio-artificial matrix than in conventional transplantation
sites, and they produced significantly more insulin when challenged with
glucose.

 

 

According to Claudius Conrad, MD, PhD, primary investigator and chief
resident in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, "Islet cell
transplantation

is the only treatment of insulin dependent diabetes that can consistently
establish insulin independence. However, islets only feel at home in the
pancreatic

niche, and therefore their survival and ability to produce insulin declines
rapidly if transplanted, for example, in the liver. The pancreas provides a

very special environment for islets. By default, the survival and function
of the islet cells will always be worse in any organ other than the
pancreas.

To engineer an endocrine pancreas, islet and stem cells require an
extracellular matrix (ECM) that provides specific architecture,
microstructure, and

most importantly microvasculature to form the islet cell specific niche." 

 

Dr. Conrad and his colleagues explained that they are attempting to form a
cellular structure that mimics the natural resting place on which the islets

thrive. "We are trying to improve the survival and the functionality of the
islets by creating their pancreas specific niche." 

 

The matrix was formed by removing cells from pancreatic tissue with
biological detergents so only the proteins that hold the cells together were
left.

The resulting matrix was seeded with donor islet cells and supportive stem
cells, and the entire construct was successfully trans-planted and
maintained

in a recipient animal model using microsurgical techniques.

 

Dr. Conrad believes that, although the research is still at an early stage,
a clinical trial of in patients with insulin dependent diabetes is likely in

the near future. "The difficult aspects of the concept, such as
decellularizing the pancreas by means of detergents, subsequent cellular
seeding, and transplantation,

have been worked out. I am very excited about the prospect of bioengineering
an endocrine pancreas that could cure patients with insulin dependent
diabetes.

I think we are very close to the clinical application of this entirely novel
concept," he said.

 

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