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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jun 26.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Biomed Eng. 2018 Jun 11;2(6):362–376. doi: 10.1038/s41551-018-0246-6

Fig. 6 |. Islet encapsulation.

Fig. 6 |

a, Islet-entrapment devices, such as crosslinked alginate capsules, are semipermeable, protecting pancreatic islet cells from immune cells while still permitting oxygen and nutrients to enter, and insulin and glucagon to escape. b, A common method of encapsulation is the formation of droplets of polymer material and islet cells via extrusion dripping into a crosslinking solution. Although effective, this method is relatively low throughput. c, Pulsating extrusion heads increase the frequency of droplet formation proportionally to pulsation frequency. d, Jet-cutting technology mechanically creates droplets by passing a blade through a continuous extrusion stream, whereby droplet formation is proportional to the rotation frequency and the separation between blades.