**The Photosynthetic Pancreas: From Fantasy to Reality**

Yoav Evron, Tali Goldman, Shiri Maimon, Nurit Shalev, Karina Yavriants, Dimitry Azarov, Dr. Baruch Zimerman and Dr. Avi Rotem

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/62237

#### **Abstract**

Islets of Langerhans implantation is a viable method to treat type I diabetes. Unfortu‐ nately, during islets isolation their vascular system is disrupted, and they need external supply of oxygen and other nutrients. A photosynthetic bioartificial device was constructed to support the oxygen consumption of the islets and to treat type I diabetes. The bioartificial device is built in layers where the core is an illumination module composed of a LED array and a light guide. The next layer is immobilized photosyn‐ thetic organism (*Synechococcus lividus*). An oxygen-permeable silicon/Teflon mem‐ brane separates the photosynthetic layer from the islets of Langerhans layer. This layer is protected from the immune system of the body by a porous Teflon membrane. The device is powered by batteries that supply electricity to a LED array. The oxygen produced by *S. lividus* is consumed by implanted islets of Langerhans that produce insulin and allow the reversal of diabetes in the patient. In this chapter, we demon‐ strate the ability of *S. lividus* to produce oxygen after being implanted for prolonged periods and eventually the ability of the device containing *S. lividus* and the islets of Langerhans to reverse diabetes for 10 days. To achieve this task, we developed improved media to grow cyanobacteria and, inter alia, developed a method to disperse light uniformly and in very short distances.

**Keywords:** Bioartificial device, Cyanobacteria, Diabetes, Implanted islets of Langer‐ hans, Synechococcus *lividus*

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
