Abstract #1867
Developing magnetocapsules for immunoprotection and MR tracking of pancreatic islets using clinically approved materials
Barnett B, Walczak P, Gilson W, Gilad A, Ruiz-Cabello J, Lauzon C, Kraitchman D, Stuber M, Arepally A, Bulte J
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Due to the significant long-term risk associated with immunosuppressive therapy, only patients with brittle type I diabetes mellitus have been selected as suitable candidates for islet transplantation. A means to immunoisolate islets, allowing engraftment free of chronic immunosuppressive therapy is needed. A plausible alternative, microencapsulation, involves surrounding individual islets with a thin shell that is impermeable to the hosts immune system but is permeable to metabolites. If microcapsules could be visualized after implantation, their functionality and biodistribution could be evaluated more effectively. To this end, we have developed alginate-based microcapsule that incorporate Feridex? in order to create the MR-trackable magnetocapsule.
