Swiss researchers have achieved a promising breakthrough that could bring type 1 diabetics closer to eliminating the need for daily insulin injections.
The researchers worked on developing an innovative hydrogel that helps implanted insulin-producing cells to survive and function efficiently inside the body for extended periods.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system attacks the "beta" cells responsible for producing insulin in the pancreas, leading to a chronic disturbance in blood sugar levels and forcing patients to rely on insulin injections for life.
Although transplanting "islets of the pancreas" — small clusters of cells that produce insulin — is one of the proposed solutions to replace damaged cells, this technique faces several obstacles, most notably the shortage of donors, the possibility of the body rejecting the transplanted tissues, in addition to poor cell survival after transplantation due to inflammation and poor blood supply.
To overcome these problems, a research team from the University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospitals developed a hydrogel called "Amniogel," which is extracted from the human amniotic membrane, the inner membrane surrounding the fetus inside the uterus, and can be obtained from the placenta after birth.
This hydrogel works to provide an environment similar to the natural environment of cells, as it allows for the formation of a fine network of blood vessels before transplantation, which helps the transplanted cells to get nutrition and oxygen quickly after they are transferred to the body.
Tests also showed that the new material may help reduce the attack of immune cells on the transplanted graft during the early stages after transplantation, which may increase the chances of successful treatment and its continuation for a longer period.
Dr. Ekaterine Barishvili, who supervised the study, said that the team combined pancreatic islets with blood vessel-forming cells inside the hydrogel, which allowed for the formation of a fine vascular network around the cells before transplantation, which enhanced their efficiency after being transferred to the body.
In experiments conducted on mice, researchers used small, disc-shaped grafts with a diameter of approximately 9 millimeters. The new formulation successfully maintained normal blood sugar levels for more than 100 days, outperforming traditional implantation methods.
The researchers believe these results represent an important step towards developing an "artificial biopancreas" that could provide a permanent alternative to insulin injections in the future.
The team is currently working on developing larger grafts to suit human use, in addition to studying the possibility of using "Amniogel" material in growing other types of cells to treat different diseases.
The study's findings were published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.
