Chan Ka Hei, Krishnan Rahul, Alexander Michael, Lakey Jonathan R T
Cell Transplant. 2017 May 9;26(5):765-772. doi: 10.3727/096368916X693446. Epub 2016 Oct 10.
The islets of Langerhans are endocrine tissue clusters that secrete hormones that regulate the body's glucose, carbohydrate, and fat metabolism, the most important of which is insulin, a hormone secreted by β-cells within the islets. In certain instances, a person's own immune system attacks and destroys them, leading to the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D), a life-long condition that needs daily insulin administration to maintain health and prolong survival. Islet transplantation is a surgical procedure that has demonstrated the ability to normalize blood sugar levels for up to a few years, but the need for chronic immunosuppression relegates it to a last resort that is often only used sparingly and in seriously ill patients. Islet microencapsulation is a biomedical innovation designed to protect islets from the immune system by coating them with a biocompatible polymer, and this new technology has demonstrated various degrees of success in small- and large-animal studies. This success is significantly impacted by microcapsule morphology and encapsulation efficiency. Since hundreds of thousands of microcapsules are generated during the process, characterization of encapsulated islets without the help of some degree of automation would be difficult, time-consuming, and error prone due to inherent observer bias. We have developed an image analysis algorithm that can analyze hundreds of microencapsulated islets and characterize their size, shape, circularity, and distortion with minimal observer bias. This algorithm can be easily adapted to similar nano- or microencapsulation technologies to implement stricter quality control and improve biomaterial device design and success.
胰岛是内分泌组织簇，可分泌调节人体葡萄糖、碳水化合物和脂肪代谢的激素，其中最重要的是胰岛素，它是胰岛内β细胞分泌的一种激素。在某些情况下，人体自身的免疫系统会攻击并破坏胰岛，导致1型糖尿病（T1D）的发生，这是一种需要每日注射胰岛素以维持健康和延长生存期的终身疾病。胰岛移植是一种外科手术，已证明其能够使血糖水平正常化数年，但由于需要长期免疫抑制，它往往只能作为最后的手段，且仅在重症患者中谨慎使用。胰岛微囊化是一项生物医学创新技术，旨在通过用生物相容性聚合物包裹胰岛来保护其免受免疫系统攻击，这项新技术在小型和大型动物研究中已取得了不同程度的成功。这种成功受到微囊形态和包封效率的显著影响。由于在这个过程中会产生成千上万的微囊，如果没有一定程度的自动化帮助，由于观察者固有的偏差，对包封胰岛进行表征将是困难、耗时且容易出错的。我们开发了一种图像分析算法，该算法可以分析数百个微囊化胰岛，并以最小的观察者偏差表征它们的大小、形状、圆形度和变形情况。该算法可以很容易地应用于类似的纳米或微囊化技术，以实施更严格的质量控制，改进生物材料装置的设计并提高成功率。
