More than 40 million people worldwide are affected with type 1 diabetes (T1D) mellitus, an autoimmune disease in which insulin producing β-cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the immune system. Today, there are several new and emerging treatment methods for type 1 diabetes, including macro encapsulation devices (MEDs)—compartments designed to house and protect insulin-secreting cells. Like a suit of armor around a knight, the MEDs protect the cells within it from attack (from the host immune system) while allowing nutrients in and out so that the cells can continue to survive.

But MEDs have several limitations and scaling up such devices for use in humans has been challenging. A team of researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School has designed a convection-enhanced MED (ceMED), which can continuously bathe cells in the nutrients they need and improve cell loading capacity, while increasing cell survival, glucose sensitivity and timely insulin secretion. In preclinical models, the ceMED rapidly responded to blood sugar levels within two days of being implanted.

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John
EditorialAssistant
Immunogenetics Open Access