Transplantation of Macroencapsulated Insulin-Producing Cells

Abstract

Purpose of review: There is considerable interest in using macroencapsulation devices as a delivery strategy for transplanting insulin-producing cells. This review aims to summarize recent advances, to highlight remaining challenges, and to provide recommendations for the field.

Recent findings: A variety of new device designs have been reported to improve biocompatibility and to provide protection for islet/beta cells from immune destruction while allowing continuous secretion of insulin. Some of these new approaches are in clinical trials, but more research is needed to determine how sufficient beta-cell mass can be transplanted in a clinically applicable device size, and that insulin is secreted with kinetics that will safely provide adequate controls of glucose levels. Macroencapsulation is a potential solution to transplant beta cells without immunosuppression in diabetes patients, but new strategies must be developed to show that this approach is feasible.

Keywords: Beta-cell replacement; Insulin kinetics; Islet encapsulation; Macroencapsulation; Oxygenation; Type 1 diabetes.