Bioartificial Pancreas: Drug Delivery through Islet Microencapsulation to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide and is on the rise. At present, there are no life-long treatments to cure diabetes. Insulin therapy, while effective in short term leads to complicated secondary complications. Allogenic islet transplants are also not very effective and only works for few years. Lot of good research and patents has been presented for the development of bioartificial pancreas. The steps involve islet isolation, purification, microencapsulation and transplantation. Each of these processes is being refined continuously to achieve long-lasting transplants. In this review, we would mainly focus on the microencapsulation process and how it is being improved such that drugs like insulin, amylin and glucagon can be released by natural tissue in response to body feedback, which would lead to a normal life with no life long complications.