I can’t proffer a guess as to its viability, but this is new for me…
That was an interesting read. I have a couple of question. The first has to do with using the word, islet. Natural islets of Langerhans have 5 different cell types that secrete 6 glucose regulatory hormones. My question is, are these true islets with all 5 cell types and will they have inter-ilet communication like natural islets?
My second is probably no answerable at this time, Will there be a need for immunosuppressant drugs and will the transplanted Beta cells still be at autoimmune risk?
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I concur, likely they are being made the same as the ones that can be grown in the lab.
Since they can already do that, I don’t really see the benefit of printing them unless it’s cheaper or faster.
We still need immunosuppressants for the lab grown ones.
The only way to prevent it is to grow them or print them for each individual, but then our immune systems kill off even our own islets, so I don’t really see a way around this issue.
Unless we can come up with a truly benign cell that is not noticed by our immune systems.
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I wonder with the myriad of autoimmune diseases if there’s any research on selectively resetting the immune system.
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It is my understanding that they are working on genetically engineering your own pancreas cells to become islet beta cells that produce insulin thus no need for immunosuppressants. Research shows promise to restore beta cells and offer type 1 diabetes treatment hope | Diabetes UK
And then there’s this one, which “hides” the beta cells so the immune system doesn’t see them:
The research is getting closer!!! 
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But again, our own immune systems attack our own beta cells, so even if we had the original pancreas, our immune systems would kill the islets, again.
We would need to start at the source and solve the overactive immune system before any kind of transplant could work.
Actually to my knowledge the immune system only kills one of the 5 cells in the Islets, the Beta cell, It does not destroy the Islets.
If these bioengineered Islet only contain the Beta cells and not the other glucose regulatory cells there is the possibility of chronic hypoglycemia. There is a complex interplay between the endocrine cells in the islets. Off the top of my head, the Alpha cells and Beta cells have insulin and glucagon receptors, respectfully. This creates a negative feedback loop that prevents wildly oscillating blood glucose levels.
These receptors do not respond to exogenous insulin and not from insulin secreted by Beta cells that are not in a true Islet with Alpha cells as well.
I know I am being a Devil’s Advocate, I am glad that this research is being done. I would like to know more.
Most of us think our pancreases are faulty when it is only 1-2% of it’s mass. Then we use the word Islet as though it is only the Beta cells, when each Islet is a colony of 5 different glucose regulatory cells secreting a total of 6 hormones. The bulk of the pancreas mass consists of blood vessels, duct for routing bile from the liver and digestive enzymes to the digestive system and to make those digestive enzymes.
Type 3c pancratogenic diabetes mellitus is when the both the endocrine and exocrine pancreatic functions are damaged. The usual culprits are cancer of the pancreas, cystic fibrosis and pancreatitis. There are a few cases were radiation treatment of cancer close to the pancreas has caused T3cDM.
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