In type 1 diabetes, the patient’s own immune system mistakenly recognises the islands of hormone producing cells in the pancreas (pancreatic islets) as foreign and destroys them, leaving them with no insulin to control blood sugar levels.
This project aims to develop biocompatible materials (biomaterials) to enhance pancreatic islet transplantation, which is a cell therapy currently used to treat patients with severe type 1 diabetes.
Currently, islets from donor pancreases are injected into the portal vein of the liver via catheter and engraft in the small blood vessels of the liver. However, many islets are immediately lost due to the body’s immune reaction.
Our solution is to deliver the islets to a site outside the liver, encapsulated in a protective biomaterial gel matrix (β- Gel), which canbe injected to a suitable body site by catheter.. A major barrier to survival of transplanted islets is the limited supply of oxygen post implantation. In this project, oxygen carriers called perfluorocarbons (PFCs) will be investigated for their capacity to slowly release oxygen within the β- Gel in the first week post transplantation, thereby facilitating the survival of transplanted islets while their blood supply grows. Two PFC oxygen carriers will be investigated by stabilizing them with biocompatible emulsifiers and adding them to the gel formulation at different concentrations.. The effect of the addition of PFC emulsions on the oxygen profile and physical properties of the gels will be studied to determine the optimal concentration and type of PFC.
