Development of bioartificial pancreatic scaffold using goat pancreas

A bioscaffold is nothing but an organ taken from an animal
and later decellularized, giving us the final scaffold, an artificial
intricacy which can mimic the microenvironment of cells.
Our study aims at producing a natural pancreatic scaffold by
decellularizing goat pancreas. We harvested goat pancreas from
a local butcher and decellularized the same with various detergents
(SDS) and ionic solutions Triton X-100) by immersing
the pancreas in these solutions for a particular period of time
so as to obtain a ghostly white organ at the end. The cycle consists
of washing pancreas in 1X PBS for 1 hour followed by immersion
in 1% SDS for 2 hours and finally immersed in 0.01%
Triton X-100. As the colour of pancreas turned white after 24
hours, so this cycle was repeated till then. The organ turning
white was the sign of complete decellularization. But a scaffold
is of no use if it has remnant native cells and/or its vasculature
has been compromised after being subjected to detergent
for decellularization. So we have also assessed the situation of
cell population and vasculature. After microtomy, the native
and decellularized pancreatic tissue samples were subjected to
various assessment such as hematoxylin and Eosin staining,
trichrome staining, immunohistochemical staining and DNA
estimation. H&E staining and DNA quantification predicted
that pancreas was devoid of any native cell population. While
trichrome and immunohistochemical staining proved the
existence of extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen, fibronectin
and laminin, which make up the vasculature, even
after decellularization. These results reveal a unique, rapid
mechanoresponsiveness and community behavior of hESCs to
integrin-targeted cyclic forces.

Author(s): Garima Singh

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