Insight into microenvironment remodeling in pancreatic endocrine tissue engineering: Biological and biomaterial approaches

Abstract

The treatment of diabetes mellitus, as a chronic and complicated disease, is a valuable purpose. Islet transplantation can provide metabolic stability and insulin independence in type 1 diabetes patients. Diet and insulin therapy are only diabetes controllers and cannot remove all of the diabetes complications. Moreover, islet transplantation is more promising treatment than whole pancreas transplantation because of lesser invasive surgical procedure and morbidity and mortality. According to the importance of extracellular matrix for islet viability and function, microenvironment remodeling of pancreatic endocrine tissue can lead to more success in diabetes treatment by pancreatic islets. Production of bioengineered pancreas and remodeling of pancreas extracellular matrix provide essential microenvironment for re-vascularization, re-innervation and signaling cascades triggering. Therefore, islets show better viability and function in these conditions. Researchers conduct various scaffolds with different biomaterials for the improvement of islet viability, function and transplantation outcome. The attention to normal pancreas anatomy, embryology and histology is critical to understand the pancreatic Langerhans islets niche and finally to achieve efficient engineered structure. Therefore, in the present study, the status and components of the islets niche is mentioned and fundamental issues related to the tissue engineering of this structure is considered. The purpose of this review article is summarization of recent progress in the endocrine pancreas tissue engineering and biomaterials and biological aspects of it.

Chitosan/Gelatin/PVA Scaffolds for Beta Pancreatic Cell Culture

“…To cultivate or encapsulate β or pancreatic islet cells, various types of natural and synthetic materials have been used, such as: poly (ether sulfone)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PES/PVP) [ 16 ], poly (lactide-glycolide) (PLG) [ 19 ], polyglycolic acid (PGA) [ 20 ], poly-p- dioxanone (PDS) [ 18 ], poly (ethylene oxide terephthalate)/poly (butylene terephthalate) (PEOT/PBT) [ 21 ], (poly-L-lactic acid) (PLLA), poly (dimethyl)siloxane (PDMS), poly (D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) [ 22 ], silk fibroin (SF)/(P-dECM) which is derived from pig pancreas after decellularization [ 23 ], polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) [ 24 ], PLGA/collagen [ 25 ], polyethylene glycol (PEG), alginate, collage, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), poly (ethylene-vinyl acetate) (PEVA), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polycaprolactone (PCL) [ 17 ], chitosan, collagen, alginate, PGA, polylactic acid (PLA) [ 26 ], dextran, gelatin [ 1 ], hyaluronic acid [ 27 ], PLGA/ poly (lactide-co- glycolide) (PLG) [ 15 ]. Most of these studies focus on a single material or binary mixtures, and most scaffolds had to be modified or supplemented with ECM components and decellularized tissues.…”

Current Status of Stem Cell Treatment for Type I Diabetes Mellitus

“…Further, MSCs have been transplanted in diabetic mice and rats in undifferentiated as well as differentiated form and have been found to restore glucose metabolism in long term studies. In addition, construction of a three-dimensional artificial matrix has also come up as solution to improve cell viability, act as a carrier for cell transplantation and overcome problem of cell loss upon direct transplantation [91]. However, in clinical settings only undifferentiated BM-MSCs have been administered till date and have found to be safe and effective in case of both T1DM and T2DM.…”

Bioengineering the Vascularized Endocrine Pancreas: A Fine-Tuned Interplay Between Vascularization, Extracellular-Matrix-Based Scaffold Architecture, and Insulin-Producing Cells

“…The ECM composition of the endocrine niche varies during human development, as different protein isoforms are expressed from early tissue precursors to mature human pancreas ( 64 ). Although there is no consensus on islet ECM composition, the predominant proteins are collagen type IV, laminin, and fibronectin with various prevalence ( 65 ). Collagen type IV contributes to BM formation ( 66 ) and favors the maintenance of the capsule architecture.…”