DEVELOPING A NOVEL MICROCHANNEL EMULSIFICATION DEVICE FOR DIABETES CELL THERAPY

摘要

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic, autoimmune illness, involving immune rejection of the body's insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. The reduced insulin production results in a dangerous increase in blood glucose levels. Cell therapy is currently being explored as an attractive long-term treatment option for this disease, whereby pancreatic islet cells are isolated from allogeneic donors, and transplanted into affected patients. Islet transplantation is a minimally invasive treatment that has successfully eliminated the need for exogenous insulin in 50-70% of patients for 5 years (Shapiro, 2017). Limitations to this treatment include the requirement of lifelong immunosuppression that may lead to opportunistic infection, and the limited donor islet supply. To overcome these issues, we are investigating islet immunoisolation in alginate microbeads to eliminate the requirement of immunosuppressive drugs and to improve access to islet transplantation as a therapeutic option.