These cells work as a micro organ to maintain glucose homeostasis.
The endocrine cells are organized into micro-organs called islets of Langerhans.
The islet is a highly organized functional micro-organ with defined size and structure, intercellular coupling, and autocrine and paracrine regulations.
In summary, human and mouse islets share common architectural features as endocrine micro-organs.
In parallel with a few dozen labs around the world, Ingber is pushing to develop a full menu of micro-organs — hearts, livers, kidneys, guts, brains, skin.
Organized within micro-organs called the islets of Langerhans, the pancreatic beta-cells provide an intriguing model for studying the allocation of proliferative and functional tasks.
But this accurately scaled diminution is essential to the final goal, which is to link the micro-organs together and monitor their interactions — resulting in the Body-on-a-Chip, as the European Union grandly puts it.
A dedicated perfusion system based on air pressure was used to allow the circulation of the culture medium to the different micro-organs through a microfluidic system.
The Griffith group's research encompasses molecular-to-systems level analysis, design and synthesis of biomaterials, scaffolds, devices and micro-organs for a range of applications in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and in vitro drug development.
These methods have been used to create tissue-specific vascularized micro-organs, vascularized microtumors, and vascular beds for studying tumor cell and immune cell extravasation.
From an ethical perspective, mitochondrial transfer is most accurately described as a form of transplantation, or "micro-organ" transplantation.
