Transplantation of pancreatic islets is becoming a promising therapy for people with type I diabetes. In this study, we present a compact fluidic system that enables assessment of islet functionality ex vivo for efficient islet transplantation. The fluidic system includes a micromesh sheet-embedded chip. Islets can be loaded easily on the micromesh sheet and observed clearly by microscopy. Islets on the mesh sheet mainly remained in place during perfusion and did not get damaged by hydraulic pressure because of high porosity of the micromesh sheet. The fluidic system was assembled with a sample fraction chip of polydimethylsiloxane. The chip includes a channel and columns, both having surfaces that were super-hydrophilized so that solutions could flow smoothly within the chip by gravity. Using mouse pancreatic islets, a dynamic glucose-stimulated insulin secretion test was performed to examine the performance of the fluidic system. The system successfully analyzed levels and patterns of insulin secretion upon exposure of the islets to low- and high-glucose solutions in turns, thus demonstrating its capacity to assess islet functions more easily and cost-effectively.

中文翻译：

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紧凑的流体系统，用于胰岛功能评估。

胰岛移植正成为I型糖尿病患者的有希望的疗法。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种紧凑的流体系统，该系统能够评估离体胰岛的功能性，以实现有效的胰岛移植。流体系统包括嵌入微网片的芯片。胰岛可以轻松地装载在微孔板上，并通过显微镜清楚观察。网眼片上的胰岛在灌注过程中主要保留在原处，并且由于微网片的高孔隙率而未被液压破坏。流体系统与聚二甲基硅氧烷的样品馏分芯片组装在一起。该芯片包括一个通道和多个柱，它们都具有超亲水化的表面，因此溶液可以在重力作用下平稳地在芯片内流动。使用小鼠胰岛，进行动态葡萄糖刺激的胰岛素分泌测试以检查流体系统的性能。该系统依次将胰岛暴露于低葡萄糖和高葡萄糖溶液后成功分析了胰岛素分泌的水平和模式，从而证明了其更容易，更经济地评估胰岛功能的能力。