Polymers for implantable bioartificial pancreas

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease that has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. Management of diabetes is often challenging and includes lifestyle changes, diligent medication, and frequent blood glucose monitoring. As a multitude of steps is required to better manage diabetes, poor patient compliance is often observed. It is envisioned that the development of a cell-based bioartificial pancreas will help to restore durable glycemic control while reducing the patient input required. In this chapter, we discuss and evaluate the use of natural and synthetic polymers for the construction of a bioartificial pancreas. Subsequently, we review the modifications that have been conducted on different base polymers to further improve their bioactivity and vascularization potential, as well as offering immunoprotection to the bioartificial pancreas. Lastly, we evaluate the various strategies used to mitigate issues commonly faced with encapsulation constructs and systemic integration, to further inform on the design considerations for a bioartificial pancreas.