Scientists to ‘recycle’ unused human pancreas as new organs for diabetics

Doctors could soon “recycle” unused human pancreas from organ donors as a better intervention for diabetic patients to increase insulin production. This is the goal of regenerative medicine researchers working on developing artificial pancreas to help millions of people with type 1 diabetes.

Pancreas is a large gland near the stomach that produces insulin for the regulation of metabolism of glucose and other nutrients. Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre have found the potential of unused human pancreas as the "hardware" of new-generation bio-artificial pancreas.

"We believe this research represents the first critical step toward a fully human-derived artificial pancreas," said lead author Dr Giuseppe Orlando, a transplant surgeon and regenerative medicine researcher, in a press release. About 25 percent of nearly 1,300 pancreata from organ donors cannot be used due to defects and other reasons that prevent transplants.

Most patients with type 1 diabetes are required to inject insulin, as their bodies are no longer capable to produce it to regulate blood sugar levels. There are other options, like pancreas transplant or transplant of insulin-producing islet cells, to help patients; however, these are rarely offered due to lack of suitable donors and the toxic effects of anti-rejection drugs.

Thus, Wake Forest researchers examined the suitability of pancreas from organ donors in a new project to create bio-artificial pancreas. The project also aims to develop new, potentially inexhaustible source of organs, which could allow patients not to take powerful anti-rejection drugs.

In the new study, the researchers analysed 25 human pancreata by removing the organs' cells. Results show that the framework of blood vessels remained intact after the cell removal process.

Numerous growth factors were also retained in the organs. Some proteins essential in blood vessel formation, cell proliferation and glucose metabolism also appeared in the pancreas.

In theory, these structures could be repopulated using the patient's own cells. The patient's skin cells and pancreas could help generate insulin-producing cells, while pancreas could also be the source of cells that would line the organ's blood vessels.

In further tests, the researchers also found that the organs became cell-friendly, allowing the cells to attach, function and maintain their original cell type. The team then tested the ability of the organs to grow new blood vessels.

Small samples of the cell-coated pancreata structures were implanted in chicken eggs, and the structures integrated well with the environment of the eggs and produced capillaries, the smallest blood vessels. Immunological tests were also conducted to see if the immune system would reject the new organs.

Researchers found that the organs regulated the immune response, indicating that the engineered pancreata could be used as adjuvant immunosuppressants and added to vaccines to increase the body's immune response.

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