The maintenance of euglycemia should prevent the development of; or halt the progression of secondary complications of Diabetes Mellitus. Exogenous insulin therapy has been unsuccessful in producing consistent, long term euglycemia. Pancreatic tissue replacement has shown encouraging results but is limited to date by the shortage of donor organs, technical complications of the surgery, the immune response of the host, and infections and complications of the required immunosuppressive drug therapy. Bioartificial pancreas offer a potential solution by providing immunoprotection to the contained islet tissue. This would allow the use of xenogeneic islet tissue without the need for immunosuppression. The PI has developed a cell containment device which has been shown to: 1) immunoisolate xenogeneic islets from the host, 2) allow the islets to produce insulin and remain viable for up to 43 days, 3) easily exchange islets within the device without surgical intervention to maintain its function, 4) avoid encapsulation of the device. This Phase I proposal will prove feasibility of the device for use with porcine islets in achieving euglycemia in research dogs to assess the efficiency of naked vs. microencapsulated islets when used with this device.
