- Researchers have developed an experimental hydrogel that helps transplanted insulin-producing cells survive and function better in diabetic mice.
- The gel supports blood vessel growth around the graft and may also help shield it from early immune attack.
- It is still early stage research, but the work points towards a more realistic bioartificial pancreas.
A team in Geneva has developed an experimental gel designed to help insulin-producing cells survive after transplantation for type 1 diabetes.
The goal is to solve one of the biggest problems in this field – getting the transplanted cells to stay alive and work properly once inside the body.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin.
Replacing those cells can restore blood sugar control, at least for a time.
But standard islet transplantation has major drawbacks.
Donor tissue is scarce, rejection is a risk and the cells often struggle after being infused into the liver, where poor blood supply and inflammation can damage them.
The new gel, called Amniogel, is made from human amniotic membrane taken from the placenta after birth.
Researchers say it provides a more natural environment for pancreatic islets and helps recreate some of the support they lose during isolation.
The key feature is that the gel is combined with vessel-forming cells before transplantation.
These cells build a microvascular network around the islets before the graft is implanted.
Once inside the body, that network can connect to the host’s own circulation.
That matters because blood supply is one of the main reasons transplanted cells fail.
In diabetic mice, the grafts kept blood sugar levels normal for at least 100 days, which was the full follow-up period.
They performed better than islets transplanted on their own and better than constructs without engineered blood vessels.
The gel also appeared to slow the movement of cytotoxic immune cells in lab testing.
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That suggests it may offer some early protection from immune attack, although it is not being pitched as a full solution to rejection.
This is still preclinical work, so there is a long way to go before anything like this reaches patients.
The researchers say the next challenge is scaling it up so that larger or multiple grafts could meet human insulin needs.
Even so, this looks like one of the more practical attempts to build a true bioartificial pancreas rather than just transplant cells and hope for the best.
