Endocrine pancreas engineered using porcine islets and partial pancreatic scaffolds

This scaffold from a large animal maintained islet survival and function in the short-term, retaining the cells as a solid organ in the parenchymal space after infusion through the pancreatic duct. These results suggest that this scaffold is suitable for further fabrication of fully functional bioengineered endocrine pancreases when implanted in vivo. Therefore, it may represent a key improvement in the field of beta-cell replacement therapy. Nonetheless, the facilitation of longer-term islet survival and studies of implantation in vivo is required for successful clinical translation.