Diabetes is a physically as well as mentally and emotionally devastating disease. The inability of the pancreas to efficiently produce insulin lies at the root of the diabetic problem. There are machines and pumps available today for sufferers of diabetes to track their blood glucose levels and to regulate their insulin, but the process creates constant discomfort and worry for the patient.
Tissue engineers, in their efforts, are trying to create the perfect combination of comfort and insulin production through the invention of an artificial pancreas. This artificial pancreas would be able to automatically adjust the insulin levels for a diabetic patient. It would also restore normal endocrine functionality.
The complete development and use of an artificial pancreas would improve the insulin therapy to the point at which physiological complications cease. Variations of this artificial pancreas idea have arisen among the sciences. Among them are the biomedical device ideas to implant an insulin pump that would assume the role of the pancreas, a bioartificial pancreas made of a biocompatible sheet of "encapsulated beta cells" (Wikipedia), and the use of gene therapy to convert digestive cells into insulin producing cells.
All of these projects have the common goal of creating a normal pancreas function, artificial or not, in the body. One of the benefits of tissue engineering is its more natural approach to the replacement of diseased tissues in the body.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment