Culture Systems of Isolated Pancreatic Islets with Extracellular Matrix Biomimetics as Tissue-Engineered Constructs of the Pancreas
Abstract The creation of a tissue-engineered structure of the pancreas based on isolated pancreatic islets is hindered by problems associated with maintaining their viability and insulin-producing function. Both biopolymer and tissue-specific scaffolds can contribute to the preservation of the structure and function of pancreatic islets in vitro and in vivo. Comparative morphofunctional analysis in vitro of two different types of tissue-engineered structures of the pancreas, which represent culture systems of isolated islets with biomimetics of an extracellular matrix - a biopolymer collagen-containing scaffold and a tissue-specific scaffold obtained as a result of pancreatic decellularization, - was performed. The results showed that the use of scaffolds in the creation of a tissue-engineered design of the pancreas contributes not only to the preservation of the viability of the islets, but also to the prolongation of their insulin-producing functions, compared to the monoculture of the islets in vitro. A significant increase was found in the basal and stimulated (under glucose load) insulin concentrations in the tissue of engineered structures studied, at the same time the advantage of using a tissue-specific scaffold compared to a biopolymer collagen-containing scaffold was shown. We think that these studies will become a platform for creating a tissue-engineered design of the human pancreas for treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus.