Endothelial cells lining surfaces of donor islets promote a faster initial blood vessel formation after transplantation. The results are published in Diabetes in October 2011.
Patients with type 1 diabetes lack insulin, as the majority of the pancreatic beta cells producing this vital hormone have been destroyed. Transplanting donor islets of Langerhans, built up primarily of beta cells, is one way to help these patients.
Directly upon transplantation, many cells die as they yet have not established contact to blood vessels for necessary supply of oxygen and nutrients. Endothelial cells lining the surfaces of the transplanted islets have previously been shown to enhance formation of blood vessels.
Using the InSight Technology, Professor Per-Olof Berggren’s research group has done a thorough analysis of donor islet endothelial cells (DIEC). Due to the capacity to detect events at the level of a single cell, it has been shown that the presence of DIEC leads to a faster initial blood vessel formation between the host and the donor tissue. As the experiments could be run during several weeks in the same animals, the scientists were also able to show that in general DIEC do not contribute to a larger number of blood vessels in the donor islets.
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