LONDON (Dispatches) -- Researchers have found a way to grow tiny replicas of the pancreas, using either healthy or cancerous pancreatic cells.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers, in collaboration with scientists at Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute used a specialized gel that mimiced the extracellular environment surrounding the pancreas and were able to grow pancreatic “organoids which allowed them to study the important interactions between pancreatic tumors and their environment. Unlike some of the gels now used to grow tissue, the new MIT gel is completely synthetic, easy to assemble and can be produced with a consistent composition every time.
The researchers have also shown that their new gel can be used to grow other types of tissue, including intestinal and endometrial tissue.
The gel they developed is based on polyethylene glycol (PEG), a polymer that is often used for medical applications because it doesn’t interact with living cells. By studying the biochemical and biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix, which surrounds organs in the body, the researchers were able to identify features they could incorporate into the PEG gel to help cells grow in it.