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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Acta Biomater. 2019 May 23;95:131–151. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.05.051

Figure 1. Mass transfer to islets is limited by isolation and encapsulation.

Figure 1.

Compared to the native pancreas (a), islets experience reduced diffusion to the majority of cells (especially in the core of the cell mass) as a result of loss of blood perfusion following isolation from the acinar tissue (b). Furthermore, encapsulation of any kind (microencapsulation shown here) increases the distance of islet cells to the surrounding fluid or blood vessels (c). Dark blue represents greater mass transport. Drawings not to scale.