Abstract
we prepared Bioartificial pancreas(BAP) by microencapsulation of islets in agarose microbeads. Five diabetic BALB/cByJ (H-2d) mice received intraperitoneal implants of 1500-3000 microencap-sulated islets of C57BL/6(H-2b) mice. All of five were demonstrating normal plasma glucose levels for more than 100 days. Graft rejection was not experienced during observation. Longest normoglycemic period was over 350 days. Agarose microbeads were impossible to be recovered as free floating state from the peritoneal cavities. They were consistently sur-rounded by a tissue. The sections of the tissue which was removed from the peritoneal cavity at 235 days after the implantation showed viable islet cells in the agarose microbeads. This research demonstrated that the BAP could be prepared by microencapsulating islets agarose gel, and that the diabetic state was reproducibly restored by the implantation of the BAP containing allogeneic islets.
