surgeons create workable pancreas cells

[Guest guest]

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.