Reconstitution of an Endocrine Pancreas Equivalent

Since donated organs are in short supply, the alternative of reconstituting them from cultivatedspecialized cells and extracellular matrix components becomes an important challenge for tissueengineering. Reconstituting a functional endocrine pancreas equivalent capable of rescuing diabetics isthe combined goal of Phase I and Phase II programs. Underlying the effort to reconstitute an implantableendocrine pancreas is an opportunity to test an in vitro approach to building a replacement part for thebody. In phase I we will test: 1) whether specially processed, animal derived, extracellular fetal matrixcomponents of two types (tissue specific and non-specific ADMAT), combined with dissociated cellsfrom rat and human pancreatic islets will stimulate the combined with dissociated cells from rat andhuman pancreatic islets will stimulate the glandular cells of the Islet to divide; 2) whether the ADMATmaterial in the form of microbeads used in spinner flasks or in a bioreactor will provide a means ofscaling up production of hormonal cells of the endocrine pancreas; and 3) whether the progeny of thecultivated glandular cells, reaggregate into pseudo-islets on ADMAT microbeads will function asresponsive hormone secretors and whether the ADMAT microbead configuration promotes Isletorganization.