A living cell transplanting device has a flexible tube capable of accommodating living cells and a cell pushing shaft inserted into the tube. The tube has a lumen penetrating therethrough and a reduced diameter front end open portion. The shaft has a small diameter end portion having a diameter smaller than that of the reduced diameter front end open portion and an enlarged diameter portion having an outer diameter larger than an inner diameter of reduced diameter front end open portion. Owing to contact between the enlarged diameter portion of the shaft and the reduced diameter front end open portion of the tube, a progress of the shaft is regulated. By pushing the shaft into the tube after the contact between the enlarged diameter portion and the reduced diameter front end open portion finishes, the enlarged diameter portion of the shaft passes through said reduced diameter front end open portion with expanding the reduced diameter front end open portion of the tube and projects beyond the reduced diameter front end open portion of the tube.

A method is provided that includes intranasally dispensing nasal wash fluid into a nasal cavity of a subject such that the nasal wash fluid washes biological material into an oropharynx of the subject from (a) the nasal cavity, (b) a nasopharynx of the subject, or (c) the nasal cavity and the nasopharynx. The method further includes, thereafter, collecting a specimen sample that passed out of an anterior opening of an oral cavity of the subject and contains at least a portion of the biological material washed into the oropharynx by the nasal wash fluid. Thereafter, information is derived from extracellular vesicles present in the specimen sample. Other embodiments are also described.

A method is provided that includes intranasally dispensing nasal wash fluid into a nasal cavity of a subject such that the nasal wash fluid washes biological material into an oropharynx of the subject from (a) the nasal cavity, (b) a nasopharynx of the subject, or (c) the nasal cavity and the nasopharynx. The method further includes, thereafter, collecting a specimen sample that passed out of an anterior opening of an oral cavity of the subject and contains at least a portion of the biological material washed into the oropharynx by the nasal wash fluid. Thereafter, information is derived from extracellular vesicles present in the specimen sample. Other embodiments are also described.

A system and method to enable treatment through cell therapy. The system can enable cell injection such as, for example, injecting beta cells/islets, cartilage cells, fat cells, and others. The system and method ensure that the delivery rate and delivered volume of the material pumped through a tube and into the injection needle is consistent over the course of the start-operation-stop process from run to run. The system and method can automatically stop delivery and alarm if an occlusion is detected during delivery.

Implantable gas delivery device and methods, systems, and devices including same. According to one embodiment, the implantable gas delivery device includes a porous core that permits facile transport of gas throughout its open volume. The porous core has sufficiently high tensile strength to withstand pressurization without significant deformation. The porous core is generally planar and is shaped to include a pair of opposing surfaces and a periphery. Diffusion membranes are fixed to the two opposing surfaces of the porous core. A gas supply tube has one end inserted into the porous core and another end connectable to a gas source. The periphery of the porous core is sealed gas-tight, either with a gasket or by sealing the porous core and/or diffusion membranes. The device may be used to deliver a gas to an implanted cell capsule or to native cells or tissues or may be used to expel waste gas.

A method of preparing a syringe in connection with a therapeutic treatment is disclosed. The method can include removing a plunger of the syringe from a barrel of the syringe, aligning the barrel in a horizontal orientation, filling a lumen of the barrel with a viscous material through an opening at a proximal end of the barrel, and inserting a plunger tip into the lumen to seal the lumen. The method can also include attaching an implantation device to a hub coupled to the barrel at a distal end of the barrel. The method can also include depressing the plunger until the cell suspension fills the implantation device and a droplet of the cell suspension is expelled from a distal tip of the implantation device.

An adipose tissue (AT) transfer system includes, on the aspiration side, an aspiration cannula, an aspiration pump, a container, and flexible tubing connecting the aspiration cannula to the container. On the reinjection side, the system includes a reinjection cannula, flexible tubing connecting the inlet of the reinjection cannula to the container, and a reinjection pump imposing positive-displacement pumping action on the flexible tubing and causing movement of AT in a pulsed mode. The aspiration pump operates to continually supply harvested AT to the second flexible tubing while the reinjection pumps causes continuous or pulsed deposition of the AT at injection site. To ensure that internal pressure and/or flow of the AT through a channel of delivery of the AT to the reinjection site does not exceed a predetermined value, the system contains an external pressure sensor configured to measure such internal pressure in absence of a part that is in direct contact with the AT.

Bioartificial ultrafiltration devices comprising a scaffold comprising a population of cells enclosed in a matrix and disposed adjacent a plurality of channels are provided. The population of cells provides molecules such as therapeutic molecules to a subject in need thereof and is supported by the nutrients filtered in an ultrafiltrate from the blood of the subject. The plurality of channels in the scaffold facilitate the transportation of the ultrafiltrate and exchange of molecules between the ultrafiltrate and the population of cells.

A system for intra-operative blood salvage autotransfusion is provided. The system comprises at least one inlet configured to receive whole blood of a patient; at least one curvilinear microchannel in fluid flow connection with the at least one inlet, the at least one curvilinear microchannel being adapted to isolate circulating tumor cells in the whole blood, based on cell size, along at least one portion of a cross-section of the at least one curvilinear microchannel; and at least two outlets in fluid flow connection with the at least one curvilinear microchannel, at least one outlet of the at least two outlets being configured to flow the circulating tumor cells isolated from the whole blood, and at least one other outlet of the at least two outlets being configured to flow at least a portion of a remainder of the whole blood, cleansed of the isolated circulating tumor cells, for return to the patient.

The present invention teaches apparatuses, systems and methods for performing a variety of medical procedures, including those involving introducing one or more substances into a subject's body. In some embodiments, the invention teaches automatically performing guided injections into a tissue site (e.g. spinal cord) of a subject by using one or more electronically operated components including a cannula, a syringe pump, and a stereotactic device.