Artificial Pancreas Update

Researchers report progress in development of artificial pancreas.
The Los Angeles Times (4/15, Maugh) reports that, according to a study published online April 14 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, "researchers have made a major step toward the development of an artificial pancreas that overcomes the bugaboo of most previous such attempts -- dangerously low blood sugar caused by injection of too much insulin." The new "experimental device secretes two hormones normally produced by the pancreas -- insulin and its counterbalancing hormone, called glucagon -- and has been shown to control blood sugar levels in about a dozen people for at least 24 hours."
"Ideally, this type of automated device would finally free people with type 1 diabetes from the insulin injections that many require each day, while relieving them of the constant need to check blood sugar levels and monitor the food they eat accordingly," HealthDay (4/14, Gordon) reported. For the study, "11 people with type 1 diabetes were included...and were studied in 27-hour experiment" during which they ate three meals rich in carbohydrates while "they were hooked up to the artificial pancreas."
Medscape (4/14, Barclay) reported that mean blood glucose (BG) "concentration of 140 mg/dL, which is below the mean BG concentration target of 154 mg/dL or less that is recommended by the American Diabetes Association, was achieved in six participants." However, "compared with six patients who had no episodes of hypoglycemia requiring treatment, five patients who did have hypoglycemia requiring treatment had slower lispro absorption kinetics." But, "setting the time-to-peak plasma lispro concentration to 65 minutes prevented hypoglycemia in both groups and achieved an aggregate mean BG concentration of 164 mg/dL."
Reuters (4/15, Steenhuysen) reports that the entire closed-loop system consists of two pumps, a laptop computer with programmable software, and a glucose monitor. Two months ago, when scientists in the UK used a similar set-up on 17 pediatric patients, they discovered that the children's BG levels remained in a range considered as normal at least three-fifths of the time.