JHU research leads to diabetes treating implant

Although a number of unique diabetes treatments are already in the works, researchers at Johns Hopkins University are giving it a shot of their own with a newfangled intravascular implant. A team of undergrads have collaborated with doctors and biomedical engineers to develop a "specialized implant for a potential treatment of type I diabetes," which has been created for implantation inside the portal vein in order to dole out insulin when needed. The pouch would ideally be "impregnated with insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells," but researchers have insinuated that this same system could possibly be used to treat other ailments such as liver disease. Notably, users could actually have the pouch removed, refilled, and reinserted if additional treatment is needed, and while no firm timeframe has been settled on for release, a provisional patent has already been applied for and "animal testing" is set to start this summer.

[Via MedGadget]

[thomas @ May 12th 2007 5:06AM]

is it me or does that look huge... hey guees it must be for americans ey brits ;)

[Morgo @ May 12th 2007 5:28AM]

it looks like a cristmas cracker with some chicken wire around it

[stitifier @ May 12th 2007 9:12AM]

As far as I know, pancreatic transplantation (essentially the same process as implanting beta cells) has largely failed to yield any positive results in diabetic Type 1 patients (hypothesized to be a result of the autoimmune process that caused the diabetes in the first place). I'm not sure how this would be any different. And insofar as other treatments are concerned, this seems to be an incremental improvement over already existing drug-eluting stents (used in cardiology).

That said, if the researchers involved in this project have figured out a way for the stent to allow insulin (or other beneficial hormones) to be eluted without allowing autoantibodies or white cells to infiltrate, then they may be on to something. So despite my skepticism, I think there's hope here.

[hhhh @ May 12th 2007 1:17PM]

The beta cells are actually inside tinny balls that don't allow the immune cells to enter.

[Evan @ May 12th 2007 9:38AM]

Give my boys some props. As someone who graduated from the BME dept at JHU a decade ago, it makes me so proud. This really takes gadgets to the next level.

[Matt @ May 12th 2007 10:57AM]

To bad they didnt have this already.... My best friend just died from diabetes 2 months ago. He was only 16.. :(

[Zzephyr @ May 12th 2007 11:53AM]

I was reading about this in Diabetes Forecast something like 4 or 5 years ago. Must be a tough nut to crack. They were trying to make the tubes containing the pancreatic cells very small, small enough for red cells to migrate in and out of, but too small for white cells. This particular project looks like they didn't succeed in that objective.

[Anonymous @ May 12th 2007 10:45PM]

This thing looks like a less-colorful version of a Chinese finger trap