Electronic sub-dermal administration of insulin?

Question

A long time ago I heard that endocrinologists were working on using real pancreatic cells placed on a microchip to administer insulin directly to diabetes patients. The cells were to be placed on a sub-dermally implanted wafer with internal power supply. A specialized membrane was to be used to encapsulate the cells allowing insulin out and life sustaining bodily fluids in. The body itself was to keep the cells alive. An on board blood-glucose analyzer was to measure glucose lvls once every minute or so and trigger a shock of some kind to the pancreatic cells to get them to produce the appropriate amount of insulin.

What happened with this project? Has it been abandoned? I can see lots of technical difficulties, but it sure seemed cool when I heard about it.

Answer 1

That project just doesn't seem to be able to "grow legs".

The first problem is the continual monitoring of the blood sugar.  As you may know, those sensors, the tabs used for the finger stick meter, are good ONLY ONCE.  They cannot be embedded under the skin.

It has been only recently that they have fixed that problem.  There are a couple of experimental continual-sampling  sensors in development.

The second problem is the "growing" of pancreatic cells in a chip.  It just ain't workin'.  One of the main problems is that ALL cells die --eventually.  So the "chip" needs to be replaced rather frequently.  "Triggering" the cells isn't helping the problem, and causes them to die quicker.

The second problem with this is still rejection.  The body wants to reject the pancreatic cells in the "chip". So the patient STILL has to take anti-rejection drugs, which s***w up other parts of the body.  How ironic -- get a brand-spankin'-new pancreas chip, then die from a head cold.

Third problem is size.  A microchip isn't big enough. Something the size of a cell phone or a pack of cigarettes, maybe . . . .

Unfortunately, this project just isn't working out right now.

The best bet is an embeddable pump.  They have belt-pumps available for several years, but the patient has to do the finger stick 10-15 times a day, and set the feed rate.  The problem has been the single-use glucose sensors.

But with that problem getting fixed, the project is looking better.  The first available units (5-7 year???) will be belt-loop, with the sensor on a needle-like device.  Needs to be changed every 3-4 days.  Another needle to do a subcutaneous injection.

But hopes are to embedd the whole system under the skin.  Iin this case the patient will need to inject insulin into the pump once every 3-4 days.  So long as it stays working, the pump never need come out.