Lauren E. Getz, S. Dan Dimitrijevich, Jeffrey L. Coffer and Tristan J. Tayag
Engineering Department, Texas Christian University, TCU Box 298640, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA
Type I diabetes is a disease that has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and which costs U.S. healthcare over $100 billion annually. The tissue transplantation of islets (from donors’ pancreata) has been shown to make diabetic patients insulin injection independent; however, such treatment is hampered by the scarcity and fragility of the harvested islets and the need for immunosuppression of the patient. Rotating wall vessel bioreactors offer a means of harvested islet maintenance as well as islet tissue engineering. In this paper, we present a technique for continuous imaging of cell aggregates or organoids (such as pancreatic islets) within the dynamic environment of a rotating bioreactor. To achieve this objective, a trade-off exists between the mass density of the aggregates and viscosity of the culture medium in the bioreactor. The balance of these material parameters permits the tissues within the bioreactor to achieve a stable spatial location for continuous imaging. The work presented in this paper will help make possible the engineering of pancreatic islets from constituent cells.