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The PancreAssist Bioartificial Pancreas System
The PancreAssist System, currently in preclinical development, is an implantable, membrane-based system designed to improve blood glucose control in diabetics by providing insulin in response to changes in the patient's blood glucose level. This improved control is believed to prevent the broad swings in blood glucose concentrations (peaks and valleys), which is thought to lead to the complications of diabetes mentioned above.
The PancreAssist System consists of a single tubular membrane surrounded by insulin-producing islets, which are, in turn, enclosed within a disk-shaped housing. The tubular membrane is porous and permeable to glucose and insulin.
Circe Biomedical is designing the PancreAssist System to be implanted near the kidney and surgically connected directly to the patient's circulatory system using standard vascular grafts and a common surgical procedure. As the patient's blood flows through the center of the tubular membrane, the islets are able to detect changes in the patient's blood glucose levels and to respond by producing insulin, which diffuses across the membrane into the patient's blood. The small pores in the membrane are designed to prevent the white blood cells and antibodies in the patient's blood from attacking the islets, thereby providing an immunologically isolated compartment for the islets so that the use of immunosuppressant drugs is not required.
A schematic diagram of the reseedable PancreAssist System is shown below.
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Figure 1. The PancreAssist System. |
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