n spite of steady and remarkable progress, islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) continues to face two major bottlenecks: inadequate availability of human pancreatic donors and necessity to totally immunosuppress the graft recipients lifelong. Microencapsulation of the islet grafts within highly biocompatible and selective permeable biomembranes could obviate use of the immunosuppressants, while potentially offering the opportunity to use a wide array of insulinproducing cells, in active development, including xenogeneic pig islets. Although macrodevices and microcapsules, which essentially differ by size/configuration, and both serve for immunoisolation devices, have been used for many years with initial human applications, new products on development in both areas might open new perspectives for more focused use in patients with T1DM. Physicalchemical properties and material engineering of these devices are critically reviewed to assess where we actually stand and where the future expansion of these technologies may go.

Immunoisolation of pancreatic islet grafts with no recipient's immunosuppression : actual and future perspectives.

CALAFIORE, Riccardo
2011

Abstract

n spite of steady and remarkable progress, islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) continues to face two major bottlenecks: inadequate availability of human pancreatic donors and necessity to totally immunosuppress the graft recipients lifelong. Microencapsulation of the islet grafts within highly biocompatible and selective permeable biomembranes could obviate use of the immunosuppressants, while potentially offering the opportunity to use a wide array of insulinproducing cells, in active development, including xenogeneic pig islets. Although macrodevices and microcapsules, which essentially differ by size/configuration, and both serve for immunoisolation devices, have been used for many years with initial human applications, new products on development in both areas might open new perspectives for more focused use in patients with T1DM. Physicalchemical properties and material engineering of these devices are critically reviewed to assess where we actually stand and where the future expansion of these technologies may go.
2011
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11391/386094
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