Bio‐Inspired Pancreas With Microfluidic Multi‐Component Hydrogel Microfibers for Exploring Pancreatic Exocrine and Endocrine Interactions

ABSTRACT The rise in pancreatic diseases, resulting from improved living quality and lifestyle habits changes, has imposed a serious social burden. To better understand the pancreatic functions during disease progression, constructing a bionic pancreas is vital yet challenging in tissue engineering. Herein, inspired by the physiological anatomy of the pancreas, we introduce core‐shell microfibers with pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) in the shell and pancreatic β‐cells in the core. Compared to traditional plate culture, the β‐cells encapsulated in the microfiber exhibit enhanced glucose‐stimulated insulin secretion. Such microfibers also serve as a platform to study the progression of diabetes of the exocrine pancreas, where the PSCs are activated under conditions of pancreatic exocrine diseases such as chronic pancreatitis. The activated PSCs impede insulin synthesis and increase apoptosis in β‐cells, resulting in elevated blood glucose. This high‐glucose microenvironment further exacerbates the activation of PSCs, causing a vicious cycle of diabetes. Additionally, the bio‐inspired pancreas also demonstrates its potential in drug screening, as evidenced by testing the glucagon‐like peptide 1 receptor agonist, Exendin‐4. Building upon such features, it is convincing that these multi‐component microfibers hold promise for exploring the pancreatic exocrine and endocrine interactions, and showing potential in disease modeling, drug screening, and regenerative medicine.