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Table of Contents
Spring 1997 Technology Today®
About the Cover
Insulin injections prolong the lives of diabetics but can result in complications
associated with the kidneys, eyes, and nervous system. These complications arise because
the injections cannot reproduce the body's precise physiological monitoring and release of
the hormone. That complex task is performed in a healthy pancreas by beta cells, which are
clustered within the islets of Langerhans (human islets are shown enlarged in the photo at
the top left). Alternative treatments for type I diabetes sufferers, who are dependent on
insulin injections, have been sought for about 25 years, with encapsulation and
transplantation of islets emerging as a promising therapy. Researchers at SwRI are
developing an extremely biocompatible matrix to address a lingering problem with this
approach--the capsules' ability to protect islets from the body's immune system for
extended periods.
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