The invisible insulin-

producing, beta-like cells:

A possible cure for
Type I Diabetes Mellitus
Bioengineering - Abigail Gillis
q ”Childhood diabetes”
q Diagnosis at 5-14 years
q 1.25 million Americans
q Autoimmune disease
q Inability to regulate blood glucose
q Associated complications - cardiovascular
disease, neuropathy, kidney damage, etc.
q Management
q Monitor blood glucose levels
q Strict diet
q Exercise and maintain
weight
q Insulin
q Injections
q Pumps
q Cellular engineering
q Generate functional insulin-producing cells
q Genetic engineering
q Alter epitope configuration
q Functional
q Unrecognizable by immune system
q Seek help from bioengineers, cellular biologists,
genetic experts, surgeons, & diabetic specialists
q Differentiation of bone marrow-derived
stem cells from mice (Hisanga et. al., 2008)
q Growth conditions
q petri dish, body Cell temperature,
passaging with need
q Growth factors: activin a, CnP,
BTC, & CT-delta4 Immune system antibody
q Glucose exposure
Cell surface antigen

q Modification – CRISPR technology

q Survival Assay
q Hemocytometer
q Glucose tolerance
q Insulin Production
q Radioimmunoassay (Hisanaga et. al., 2008)
q Insulin response to glucose
q Immune System Avoidance
q Fluorescent microscopy with antibodies
 NOD mouse

q Mouse model - Induce disease

q Transfer model
q 2 weeks Immune cells
w/autoantibodies
q Control – normal mice
q Same diet
q No treatment
q Experimental
Immunocompromised
q Diabetic mouse w/ cells mouse

q Diabetic mouse w/ insulin

q General physical conditions
q Blood glucose levels
q Daily fasting blood glucose
q Insulin levels
q Daily, 1 hour after eating
q Imaging of insulin producing cells
q Tag with fluorescent dye
q Treatment period = 4 weeks
q Autopsy
q Focus on pancreas
q Cell structure
q Focus on cell surface antigen
q Fluorescent microscopy
q Were new antibodies created?
q Fluorescent microscopy with mice
antibodies
q Creation of new antibodies against the insulin-
producing cells
q Problem: Immunocompromised mice
q Cell survival
q Treatment may need to occur multiple
times in a diabetic patient’s lifetime
q Cost concerns
q How to determine when another
treatment is need
Upon Positive Results
q Testing with human stem cells in SirpaNOD mice

Upon Negative results

q Why didn’t it work?
q Additional benchtop tests
q Alterations to design
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