“Living drug factories” might treat diabetes and other diseases
news.mit.edu- New medical device might make it possible to transport healing cells into your body without alarming your immune system—so far it’s only been tested in mice.
- It comes as an alternative to islet cell transplant, a treatment for diabetes that is hard to apply because the patient’s immune system often rejects it.
- When put into diabetic mice, the device remained viable for five months, with the cells constantly producing the drugs that the mice needed.
- The device is built from a silicon-based, flexible polymer with a membrane that lets oxygen and nutrients into the device, and it’s coated with a drug called THPT.
- This is an important step for biocompatible treatments, however there was no information about when it would be tested in humans.