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Artificial pancreas


The artificial pancreas is a technology in development to help people with diabetes automatically control their blood glucose level by providing the substitute endocrine functionality of a healthy pancreas.

There are several important exocrine (digestive) and endocrine (hormonal) functions of the pancreas, but it is the lack of insulin production which is the motivation to develop a substitute. While the current state of insulin replacement therapy is appreciated for its life-saving capability, the task of manually managing the blood sugar level with insulin alone is arduous and inadequate.

The goal of the artificial pancreas is two-fold:

Different approaches under consideration include:

A biological approach to the artificial pancreas is to implant bioengineered tissue containing islet cells, which would secrete the amount of insulin, amylin, and glucagon needed in response to sensed glucose.

When islet cells have been transplanted via the , insulin production (and glycemic control) was restored at the expense of immunosuppression. Encapsulation of the islet cells in a protective coating has been developed to block the immune response to transplanted cells, which relieves the burden of immunosuppression and benefits the longevity of the transplant.

One concept of the bio-artificial pancreas uses encapsulated islet cells to build an islet sheet which can be surgically implanted to function as an artificial pancreas.

This islet sheet design consists of:

Islet sheet research is pressing forward with large animal studies at the present, with plans for human clinical trials within a few years.

Technology for gene therapy is advancing rapidly such that there are multiple pathways possible to support endocrine function, with potential to practically cure diabetes.

Technology for continuous blood glucose monitoring supports the mission of the artificial pancreas by:

These capabilities suggest that a stream of real-time data can be used to "close the loop" and control the insulin pump directly.

Some issues with the present performance of continuous sensing technology suggest that additional study is needed for application to the artificial pancreas:


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