Type 1 diabetes (T1D) hyperglycemia, an inflammatory illness in that the immune response destroys incretin cells in the pancreatic, affects more than 40 million individuals globally.
Macro-encapsulation devices (MEDs) compartments intended to contain and preserve insulin-secreting cells are one of numerous innovative and emerging therapeutic approaches for type 1 diabetes.
Creating A More Effective Bioartificial Pancreas
Diabetes is mostly considered a lifestyle disease that happens to people with a sedentary lifestyle most. The role of the pancreas is an important one that can affect the level of sugar in one’s body as it produces insulin which controls the blood sugar. In most cases, over a period the pancreas does not function properly and hence it leads to the worst health condition.
The MEDs, like a knight’s armor, guard the cells inside it from assault (by the human immune response) while letting nutrition in and out, enabling the cells to survive. However, MEDs have a number of drawbacks, and ramping up such gadgets for actual use has been proven difficult.
“Thanks to recent advances, we’re getting closer and closer to having an unlimited source of β-like cells that can respond to glucose by secreting insulin, but the next challenge is getting those cells into the body in a way that’s minimally invasive and will have longevity with maximal function,” said corresponding author Jeff Karp, Ph.D., principal investigator, and Distinguished Chair in Clinical Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. “Our device demonstrated enhanced cell viability and minimal delay following transplantation. It’s a strong preclinical proof of concept for this system.”
Currently, nutrition permeates through the phone’s outer surface, and only a small amount of cells get nutrients, causing them to produce hormones. The cement was created to deliver convection nutrition to encapsulated cells by a constant flowing fluid, enabling many cell layers to grow and thrive. The player’s prototype has two compartments: an equilibria room (ECC) that absorbs nutrition from the environment and a cell compartment (CC) where the shielded cells are housed.
“The application of stem cell-derived islets to treat autoimmune or Type 1 diabetes has now moved to the point of finding a method to protect the cells from immune rejection and maximizing their survival and function following transplantation,” said co-author Doug Melton, Ph.D., of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. “Convection-enhanced macro-encapsulation may well be a viable approach to achieve all of these goals.”
The gadget has a number of benefits over traditional insulin pumps, including the ability for cells to produce insulin on request and to stop emitting insulin fast as blood glucose falls. The cement improved cell viability and hormone secretion in mouse types of t1d, and it started lowering blood glucose two days after transplant.
“Due to its responsiveness, this device and novel flow-enhanced approach could be particularly useful for ‘brittle’ diabetics, people whose diabetes results in unpredictable swings in blood sugar levels,” said EoinO’Cearbhaill, Ph.D. (now at University College Dublin, Ireland), a co-author and former postdoctoral researcher in the Karp Lab who helped worked on developing this notion.
Ramping up cell load-bearing capacity and optimizing the highly vascularized flow mechanism for humans usage are two further avenues that the team acknowledges will need to be followed in order to take the gadget to the hospital.
“Overall, these results highlight significant advantages of cement over existing diffusion-based devices including improved cell survival, reduced fibrous encapsulation that can compromise the functionality over time, and quicker on and off rates for insulin secretion,” said Karp. “This approach has the potential to enhance the success of β cell replacement therapies to help many T1D patients and their families manage this challenging disease.”
