Modern Medical Laboratory Journal

Researchers in Sweden have developed a 3D-printed, microscale implant in the eye to offer cell-based therapy that could treat diabetes. The researchers chose pancreatic islets, cell clusters in the pancreas that produce insulin, as donors’ cells have been used in experimental treatments for type 1 diabetes. 

Anna Herland, senior lecturer in the Division of Bionanotechnology at SciLifeLab at KTH and the AIMES research center at KTH and Karolinska Institutet, says that the eye is ideal for this technology because it has no immune cells that react unfavorably in the first stage of implantation. Its transparency allows visual and microscopic study of what happens to the implant over time.

“The eye is our only window into the body, and it’s immune-privileged,” Herland says.
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