- Islet Transplantation Improves Longevity in Type 1 Diabetes Patients
- Promising Results for Type 1 Diabetics Receiving Kidney Transplants
- Islet Transplantation and Its Potential to Extend Kidney Transplant Recipient Lifespan
Implanting pancreas cells from a donor into the liver of patients with type 1 diabetes can help them live longer, a study has discovered.
For type 1 diabetics undergoing a kidney transplant, the results of a clinical trial conducted by French scientists were promising.
As a result of blood vessel damage caused by elevated blood sugar, approximately one-third of type 1 diabetes patients will eventually require a new kidney. In addition, many transplant recipients will experience kidney failure again within a few years.
Data suggests, however, that an innovative procedure – islet transplantation – can increase the amount of time patients can live without experiencing further complications after a kidney transplant.
Islet cells are extracted from a donor’s pancreas using this technique.
These cells produce insulin, the hormone that maintains stable blood glucose levels.
The pancreas is a gland in the form of a leaf located near the liver. In type 1 diabetics, for unknown reasons, the immune system attacks the gland, causing it to malfunction.
During the kidney transplant, diabetic patients receive islet cells via catheter into their livers. The liver is selected because it has a unique property known as immune privilege; it is less likely than other organs to elicit an immune response when foreign tissues or cells are transplanted into it.
The new study, which was presented today at the European Society for Organ Transplantation Congress, examined 330 kidney transplant recipients.
They discovered that patients who received islet transplantation were 50 percent less likely to develop kidney failure than those who did not receive the treatment, and lived an average of one year longer.
The University of Lille found that islet transplant recipients needed 70% less insulin to control their blood sugar.
Even though 400,000 Britons have type 1 diabetes, only 40 islet transplants are performed annually, according to NHS data.
Dr. Mehdi Maanaoui, a nephrologist and the study’s author, stated, “We hope our findings will increase access to islet transplantation.”
