Articles techniques et présentations

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by the autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, necessitating lifelong management and imposing significant health and economic burdens. Cell-based replacement strategies, particularly pancreatic islet transplantation, offer a promising alternative to exogenous insulin delivery. However, their success is severely limited by immune rejection and, critically, insufficient oxygen transport within encapsulation devices, which can lead to hypoxia and cell necrosis. In macroencapsulation systems, geometric design plays a central role in governing transport phenomena, yet the influence of curvature on oxygen delivery and cell viability remains underexplored. This work investigates the effect of device curvature on oxygen transport and predicted cell viability within a macroencapsulation system design in McGill's Stem Cell Bioprocess Lab. To analyze this effect, a three-dimensional numerical model was developed in COMSOL Multiphysics® version 6.2 and couples laminar flow with mass transport using the Laminar Flow and Transport of Diluted Species in Porous Media interfaces. Preliminary results indicate that curvature can influence oxygen transport by modifying local velocity fields and enhancing convective contributions to mass transfer. In particular, increased curvature induces secondary flow patterns that improve oxygen penetration into surrounding regions, potentially mitigating hypoxic zones within the encapsulated cell compartment. These effects translate into improved predicted cell viability under certain geometric configurations.