Sharon Grundfest-Broniatowski, Brown K, Fung JJ, Qian S, Lu L. Miko Cakmak, G Erdodi and Joseph Kennedy
Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
We have been developing a bioartifi cial pancreas which utilizes semipermeable amphiphilic membranes to immunoisolate pancreatic islet cells and have retreived viable encapsulated porcine islets from dogs aft er three weeks. Rejection, however, is not the only problem which can impact islet survival. Encapsulated islets have been shown to have improved survival in the presence of VEGF and fi brin sealant, but VEGF has a short half-life. Th erefore, we decided to co-transplant cells which produce large amounts of growth factors. Myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have two advantages: 1) they are rich in VEGF, and 2) they have immunosuppressive properties. Our lab has recently shown that MDSCs markedly augment the survival of mouse islet allograft s when placed under the renal capsule from 14 days to > 350 days. We are currently conducting experiments to see if co-transplantation of MDSCs will similarly improve results for encapsulated syngeneic and allogeneic islets.
Sharon Grundfest-Broniatowski has an SBEE degree from MIT (1969) and an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1973). She is Associate Professor of Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CWRU). She has a long standing interest in pancreatic whole organ and islet transplantation for diabetes.
