Insulin Production Systems

Insulin Production Systems:-

Type I diabetes mellitus is a disorder affecting over 80 million people worldwide. At present

exogenous insulin delivery via injection or pumps equipped with glucose sensors cannot provide the minute-to-minute normoglycemia needed to prevent the complication associated with this autoimmune disorder. The sensor pump technology also lacks durability, with device function often limited to only hours.

The exacting requirement placed on insulin dosage and timing of administration in diabetic patients, as well as the many years of safe and reliable treatments expected from the insulin delivery technology, have pointed to the advantages of implantable systems in which insulin would be synthesized as needed and made available to the organism on demand.

Four alternatives have been considered and have undergone clinical evaluation: whole organ transplantation, human islet and xenogeneic islet transplantation, immunoisolation of normal or tumoral insulin-secreting tissue, and transplantation of genetically-engineered cells to replace the functions of the beta cells.

At present there are three critical problem areas in the further development of implantable

immunoisolation devices:

1. supply of tissue,

2. device design and performance, and

3. protection from immune rejection.

Tissue Sourcing:-

Organs and cells of animal origin are being considered as a source of tissue for

xenotransplantation. If islet transplantation is to become a widespread treatment for type I diabetics, solutions must be found for increasing the availability of insulin-producing tissue

and for overcoming the need for continuous immunosuppression. Insulin-producing cells being

considered for clinical transplantation include porcine and bovine islets, fish-Brockman

bodies, genetically engineered insulin-secreting cell lines and in vitro produced “human”

β-cells.

Cell Banking and Transplanted Tissue Volume:-

Certain human cells can be readily cultivated and scaled up for cell banking. A partial list includes: skin cells, vascular cells, adipose tissue cells, skeletal muscle cells, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, mucogingeval cells, corneal cells, skeletal musclecells and pigment cells.