Application of a novel bioreactor for in vivo engineering of pancreas tissue

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by autoimmune destruction of pancreatic cells. Organ transplantation is an acceptable treatment for native organ failure. However, it is associated with several problems due to a number of reasons, such as the lack of appropriate donors and immunosuppression. In our present study, a novel model is presented for in vivo recellularization of acellular pancreas by implanting between the host pancreas and the adjacent omental flap. In this study, the pancreases were harvested and cannulated via the common bile duct and then, the scaffolds were acellularized by a detergent-based protocol. After that, the abdomens of 35 rats were opened and the spleen was extracted with the adjacent omentum, and placed outside the abdomen. The acellularized scaffold was stretched over the host pancreas and the omentum was wrapped around it to make a sandwich-like structure, which was then fixed with Chromic Sutures 6-0 and marked with Prolene 4-0 on four sides. All samples were biopsied at 14, 30, 60, 90, and 120 days post-transplantation. The result showed marked recellularization of acellularized pancreas with visible neovascularization and neo-cells with minimal inflammatory response. This study provides a new approach to produces a normal-like pancreas by allograft transplantation for pancreas tissue engineering. We observed that in vivo transplantation of acellularized pancreas can promote recellularization, proliferation, and differentiation by blood circulation. These findings support that in vivo studies can contribute to finding faster solutions for the treatment of diabetes.