A Review of Progress and Challenges in Pancreatic Endocrine Tissue Bioengineering for Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes

A common treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes, in which pancreatic beta cells are destroyed by the immune system attack, is insulin injection. Because this treatment is not able to maintain complete glucose homeostasis compared to the function of endogenous insulin secreted by the pancreas; in the field of pancreatic tissue engineering, various treatment strategies have been proposed, which this article introduces and reviews.

The present article is a review study that was performed using the search of keywords including Tissue Engineering, Pancreas, Type 1 Diabetes, and Three-dimensional Bioprinting, Insulin Producing Cells, Artificial Organ, and Endocrine Pancreas Bioprinting in the available databases of PubMed / MEDLINE and Web of Sciences to search for relevant articles and books at least 20 years ago until December 2003 and reviewed 53 articles and two related books.

A total of 53 articles and two books obtained from the search, which were in line with the objectives of the present study, were selected and the analysis of their results was presented in fluent and practical language. Based on the results, the use of β-like cells derived from stem and accessory cells, scaffolds, cell encapsulation and transplantation methods in different areas away from the immune system, can be considered as promising methods in treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Newapproaches related to the field of pancreatic tissue engineering include various solutions such as the use of embryonic and adult stem cells, the use of natural and synthetic scaffolds to guide and organize the targeted tissues, the use of 3D bioprinters, insulin secreting organoids and pancreas on a chip which are the most effective and promising methods to overcome these challenges.