[Polymeric materials for biomedical purposes obtained by radiation methods. V. hybrid artificial pancreas]

The authors present a review of works done on the elaboration of a hybrid-type artificial pancreas. The article discusses construction designs, applied polymeric materials as well as biocompatibility problems of polymeric membranes that encapsulate the Langerhans islets. On example of hydrogel membranes prepared by radiation crosslinking of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) the dependence of the diffusion coefficients of glucose, insulin and immunoglobulin G on the crosslinking degree of hydrogels has been shown.