Monitoring of the Blood Supply to Artificial Cavity Used as a Site for Pancreatic Islet Transplantation

Daniel Jirak¹, ², Jan Kriz¹, Eva Vodraskova¹, Klara Zacharovova¹, Frantisek Saudek¹, Milan Hajek¹

To improve transplantation outcome, artificially created sites for cell transplantation have gained attention. The aim of our study was to evaluate the blood supply of the artificial cavities for islet transplantation in a preclinical rat model. Two biocompatible scaffolds were implanted subcutaneously and into greater omentum of the same animal. The blood supply of these devices was assessed by dynamic contrastenhanced magnetic resonance imaging within four weeks following implantation. Our results indicate that artificial device implanted into greater omentum possesses superior blood supply for the transplanted cells and optimal time for cell transplantation is one week after implantation.