By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    stress management for healthcare workers
    3 Tips For Healthcare Professionals: How To Stay Beautiful, Healthy, and Happy
    November 2, 2021
    importance of relaxing on the weekend for your health
    Importance of Relaxing During the Weekend for Optimal Health
    March 25, 2022
    LASIK Eye Surgery
    What Is LASIK Eye Surgery?
    May 16, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    New Study Challenges Current Notions of Breast Cancer Biopsy Abnormalities
    February 5, 2014
    Health Insurers are Feeling the Pressure of Looming PPACA
    August 30, 2012
    demographics bar graph
    Demographics of CDHP Enrollees
    May 8, 2014
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Cell Therapy: The Missing Link for a True Artificial Pancreas?
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Technology > Medical Innovations > Cell Therapy: The Missing Link for a True Artificial Pancreas?
Medical InnovationsSpecialtiesTechnology

Cell Therapy: The Missing Link for a True Artificial Pancreas?

Deanna Pogorelc
Deanna Pogorelc
Share
7 Min Read
SHARE

cell therapy and diabetesOriginally published on MedCitynews.com. 

cell therapy and diabetesOriginally published on MedCitynews.com. 

A closed-loop system of devices referred to as the artificial pancreas has been called the “holy grail” for Type 1 diabetes. Some scientists, though, think the future of diabetes treatment lies not in glucose meters and insulin pumps but in cell-based therapies with the potential to eliminate the need for daily insulin injections.

Islet cell transplantation is not a new concept, but patients receiving the experimental therapy up to this point have generally not sustained independence from insulin for more than a few years. Researchers and biotech companies are out are moving closer to changing that.

More Read

How To Improve Mental Health With The Help of Technology
What Are the Benefits of PDO Thread Lifts?
Massively Open Online Medicine: Bad Idea or Just Before Its Time?
How to Deal with an Acne Prone Skin?
Five Delightful And Useful Must-Haves For Mums To Be

Type 1 diabetes develops when the beta cells in the pancreas can’t make insulin because the body’s immune cells attack and destroy them. Excess glucose builds up in the blood, requiring these people to take daily insulin injections to use up the glucose.

As a proposed solution to that, an islet cell transplantation takes islets — clusters of cells that contain beta and other kinds of glucose-regulating cells — from the pancreas of a deceased donor. After being purified and processed, those cells are implanted into the liver of a person with diabetes, where the beta cells begin to make and release insulin.

There are problems, though. Naturally, the immune system attacks what it recognizes as foreign, including transplanted islets. Immunosuppressive drugs can be used, but those introduce a host of other problems.

Then there’s the resources issue. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a patient typically needs to receive at least 10,000 islet “equivalents” per kilogram of body weight, and often require more than one transplant to reach insulin independence. That’s not scalable with a limited number of donors.

Sernova Corp. thinks it has the answers  — or at least some of them. Ontario, Canada-based Sernova has been working with Dr. James Shapiro, a pioneer of the technique at University of Alberta at Edmonton, developing a two-pronged approach to helping the body regenerate beta cells.

At the core of Sernova’s technology is a medical device. It’s a matchbook-sized, polymer pouch that’s implanted under the skin in the abdomen. It provides an “organ-like” environment to house islet cells.

“The device has multiple large pores in it that allow tissues to move into the device itself,” said CEO Dr. Philip Toleikis. “There are cylindrical plugs that tissue grows around, and when you pull the plugs out the micro-vessels grow in.”

People have been trying to make similar devices for 50 years, according to Dr. Rohit Kulkarni, principal investigator of islet cell and regenerative biology at Joslin Diabetes Center. The trick is making them out of materials that are porous enough to let glucose in and insulin out without letting immune cells in.

Toleikis said The Cell Pouch System was designed that way and has shown long-term efficacy in small animal models. “What we’ve found is a number of groups have tried to do this have made devices with smooth surfaces on the walls of the device,” Toleikis explained. “The body will treat that as a splinter — it will wall up and the device becomes not scalable.”

The second component to Sernova’s treatment is a proprietary cellular technology called Sertolin that’s mixed with donor cells to protect them from attack by immune cells. Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate the need for those costly and side-effect-causing immunosuppressive drugs.

That still leaves one gaping hole, though: the supply of islet cells to go into the pouch. The consensus seems to be that islet cells will eventually come from stem cells, but those techniques have not yet been perfected.  “Those (approaches) are in place but have not been successful yet because efficiency has been so low,” Kulkarni said. “You start with a million cells but end up with 10 cells.”

That’s where other companies and organizations come in. Spring Point Project is one non-profit working to provide a “virtually unlimited supply” of pigs to serve as islet cell donors. Porcine cells, because of their wide availability and similarity to human cells, have in fact become a staple in most islet transplant approaches these days. For example,  Islet Sciences in New York plans to submit an IND for its therapy – a combination of islets from young pigs and therapeutic agents that black the immune system’s rejection – to the FDA this year. Living Cell Technologies is conducting late-stage trials of its DIABECELL, also a porcine cell treatment, in Argentina.

While a fix for the supply problem is still a ways away, Sernova is pressing on. It initiated the first-in-human trial of the pouch in Canada one year ago. Shapiro is leading the Phase I/II clinical study of the safety and efficacy of the pouch in type 1 diabetes patients receiving islet cell transplants along with the standard anti-rejection medications.

“Once Dr. Shapiro gets comfortable with the procedures, we could potentially expand the clinical trial into the U.S. and Europe,” Toleikis said.

It’s also advancing Sertolin through pre-clinical trials with a $254,000 grant from the National Research Council of Canada. The goal is to find the ideal combination of islet cells and Sertolin, Toleikis said.

In addition to a potential new treatment for diabetes, Toleikis is excited about the potential of Sernova’s approach in treating other conditions, like hemophilia. “The cell pouch technology is a platform, so we can treat any kind of disease where there is a protein or hormone in short supply in the body,” he said. “We plan on expanding to work with companies that have therapeutic cells that need to be delivered somewhere in the body.”

TAGGED:cell therapydiabeteshealth start-ups!
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Global Healthcare

World Diabetes Day – Blue Fridays

October 18, 2011
mhealth
Home HealthMedical DevicesMedical InnovationsMobile HealthNewsTechnology

Mobile Health Around the Globe: Raiing Thermometer From China Continuously Monitors Temperature

January 21, 2013
Medical DevicesTechnology

5 Life-Changing Assistive Technologies for the Visually Impaired

April 19, 2018
SpecialtiesWellness

5 Ways A Facelift Can Make You Look Young And Feel Vibrant Again

June 25, 2019
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?