Artificial pancreas

Question

I just read in [an online news magazine] that the development of an artificial pancreas is making progress.

Will this artificial gland possibly be an option for CF patients in the future?

And how do I have to imagine this – can this only affect the insulin/glucagons balance and hence treat diabetes? Or can it even control the lipase, amylase, and protease release, and hence enable somewhat of a normal digestive process?

Answer

Hello,

the system you are referring to has been developed and published by a team from Boston and is certainly quite interesting and a scientific and technical progress. To describe it as an artificial pancreas, however, is rather bold.

It is actually not much more than a pump that releases insulin as well as its antagonist, glucagon, into the blood according to the command of a computer that belongs to the system and continuously determines blood sugar with a sensor. In addition, it did not really work well, as half of the subjects showed hypoglycaemia, and the authors themselves write that the system needs more work (El-Khatib et al., Sci Trans Med 14, April 2010, Vol 2,27; 27). It will therefore certainly take a few years until something similar will be publicly available. And it only substitutes the endocrine function of the pancreas, i.e. the insulin, not the excocrine function, i.e. the release of pancreatic enzymes.

Kind regards
Prof. Dr. Joachim Bargon

07.09.2010