Stem Cell Islets: Vascularized Model Advances
- A team led by Maike Sander at the Max Delbrück Center has engineered a meaningful advancement in diabetes research: a vascularized organoid model of hormone-secreting pancreatic cells. published...
- The key to this breakthrough lies in the creation of stem cell-derived pancreatic islets (SC-islets) with integrated blood vessels.
- Sander emphasized the importance of this vascular network in supporting pancreatic islet cell function.
Scientists achieved a major breakthrough in diabetes research with a new vascularized organoid model. This crucial advancement, detailed in Developmental Cell, mimics pancreatic islets, promising too revolutionize the study of diabetes and cell-based therapies.Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center engineered stem cell-derived pancreatic islets (SC-islets) with integrated blood vessels.This integration led to improved insulin secretion and beta cell maturity compared to models lacking vasculature, providing a more accurate representation of the pancreas. This advancement, which took five years to perfect, offers new avenues for understanding and treating this leading cause of death. By incorporating human endothelial cells and fibroblasts, they fostered a vital network. These vascularized SC-islet organoid models are already showing meaningful promise, with diabetic mice receiving transplants exhibiting positive results, paving the way for enhanced Type 1 diabetes treatments. News Directory 3 will continue to monitor these developments. Discover what’s next for this innovative approach to a complex disease.
Vascularized Organoids Offer New Hope for Diabetes Research
A team led by Maike Sander at the Max Delbrück Center has engineered a meaningful advancement in diabetes research: a vascularized organoid model of hormone-secreting pancreatic cells. published in Developmental Cell, this innovation promises to enhance both the study of diabetes and the development of cell-based therapies.
The key to this breakthrough lies in the creation of stem cell-derived pancreatic islets (SC-islets) with integrated blood vessels. These islets, clusters of cells within the pancreas, are responsible for producing hormones like insulin. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, observed that SC-islet organoids with blood vessels exhibited a greater number of mature beta cells and secreted more insulin compared to those without vasculature.This closer replication of natural islet cells offers a more accurate model for study.
Sander emphasized the importance of this vascular network in supporting pancreatic islet cell function. The new model brings scientists closer to replicating the pancreas’ natural surroundings, which is crucial for studying diabetes and developing new treatments for this disease, a leading cause of death and disability.
The team’s success hinged on identifying the right combination of cells and culture media. By adding human endothelial cells and fibroblasts to islet organoids grown from stem cells, they fostered the growth of a network of blood vessels that enveloped and penetrated the SC-islets. This process took five years of experimentation, according to Sander.
Further analysis revealed that endothelial cells and fibroblasts contribute to the formation of the extracellular matrix, a key signal for cell maturation. Endothelial cells also secrete Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP), which stimulates beta cell maturation. integrating the organoids into microfluidic devices to simulate nutrient flow further increased the proportion of mature beta cells.
in tests with diabetic mice,those grafted with vascularized SC-islet cells fared substantially better than those receiving non-vascularized cells,with some showing no signs of the disease 19 weeks after transplant. This supports existing research highlighting the benefits of pre-vascularization in transplanted SC-islets.
Sander plans to utilize these vascularized SC-islet organoid models to investigate Type 1 diabetes.Her team is currently growing vascularized organoids from cells of patients with type 1 diabetes, transferring them onto microfluidic chips, and adding patients’ immune cells. The goal is to understand how immune cells destroy beta cells in Type 1 diabetes, possibly leading to better treatments.
What’s next
The team will continue to refine the vascularized organoid model and use it to study the mechanisms of Type 1 diabetes, with the ultimate goal of developing more effective therapies.