Could ‘cyborg’ transplants replace pancreatic tissue damaged by diabetes?
A new electronic implant system developed by Penn Medicine researchers prompts lab-grown pancreatic cells to mature, and suggests a new way to treat diabetes.
2 min. read
A new electronic implant system can help lab‑grown pancreatic cells mature and function properly, potentially providing a basis for novel, cell-based therapies for diabetes. The approach, developed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine and Harvard, incorporates an ultrathin mesh of conductive wires into growing pancreatic tissue, according to a study published in Science.
The researchers grew pancreatic tissue (above) so it incorporated a mesh-like electronic network (red). Cells within the tissue produce insulin (green), the blood-sugar-lowering hormone lost in type 1 diabetes.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine)
“The words ‘bionic’, ‘cybernetic’, ‘cyborg’, all of those apply to the device we’ve created,” says Juan Alvarez, an assistant professor of cell and developmental biology. While these terms may sound futuristic, he noted this approach is already in use in the form of deep brain stimulation, which treats neurological conditions. “What we’re doing is like deep stimulation for the pancreas. Just like pacemakers help the heart keep rhythm, controlled electrical pulses can help pancreatic cells develop and function the way they’re supposed to,” he says.
Researchers in Alvarez’s lab partnered with the Jia Liu lab at Harvard to implant a fine, electrically conductive mesh into pieces of developing pancreatic tissue, capable of detecting the electrical signals from the islet cells. They then introduced a natural, 24-hour rhythm in electrical activity, prompting the cells to mature and respond properly to sugar—overcoming a major challenge to growing fully functional pancreatic tissue outside the body. Such alternative transplants promise to dramatically expand the supply of new tissue and, if engineered properly, reduce the risk of rejection.
This approach of coaxing human stem cells to produce beta and other hormone secreting cells is already being tested in clinical trials. Still, a key challenge remained: Even with this electrical boost, the lab-grown cells often don’t fully mature and may not release insulin and other hormones as reliably as natural ones.
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