Lisa Nalbach, Leticia P Roma, Beate M Schmitt, Vivien Becker, Christina Körbel, Selina Wrublewsky, Mandy Pack, Thomas Später, Wolfgang Metzger, Maximilian M Menger, Florian S Frueh, Claudia Götz, Haopeng Lin, Joseline E Manning Fox, Patrick E MacDonald, Michael D Menger, Matthias W Laschke, Emmanuel Ampofo
Pancreatic islet transplantation still represents a promising therapeutic strategy for curative treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, a limited number of organ donors and insufficient vascularization with islet engraftment failure restrict the successful transfer of this approach into clinical practice. To overcome these problems, we herein introduce a novel strategy for the generation of prevascularized islet organoids by the fusion of pancreatic islet cells with functional native microvessels. These insulin-secreting organoids exhibit a significantly higher angiogenic activity compared to freshly isolated islets, cultured islets, and non-prevascularized islet organoids...
January 11, 2021: EMBO Molecular Medicine