THE development of procedures to isolate large numbers of purified human pancreatic islet cells has made it possible to initiate a new phase of clinical trials in pancreatic islet transplantation for treatment of type 1 diabetes. 1-3 Although nonspecific immunosuppressive agents have been instrumental in controlling alloreactivity to transplanted islet cells. rejection still occurs and is a maj...

Transplantation of macroencapsulated pancreatic islets within semipermeable membranes is a promising approach for the treatment type 1 diabetes. Encapsulation beneficially isolates implants from host immune system. Deleteriously however, it also limits oxygen supply to cells. This creates challenges in loading at amount and density required meet practical demands clinical usage. To overcome thi...

Pancreatic islet transplantation has emerged as a therapy for type 1 diabetes and is today performed using both freshly isolated and cultured islets. Islet blood vessels are disrupted during islet isolation; therefore, proper revascularization of the transplanted islets is of great importance for islet graft function and survival. We have studied intraislet endothelial cells after islet isolati...

Exposure to cigarette smoke is an etiological factor of human pancreatic cancer and has been associated with an increased risk of pancreatic diseases, including pancreatitis and diabetes. The toxicants in cigarette smoke can reach pancreatic tissue, and most of the toxicants require cytochrome P450 (P450)-mediated metabolic activation to exert their toxicity. Among all the human P450 enzymes, C...

Promising results of pancreatic islet transplantation to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus, combined with severe shortage of donor pancreata, have spurred efforts to generate pancreatic islet-like cells and insulin-producing β-cells from various progenitor populations. In this study, we show for the first time that multipotent nestin-positive stem cells selected from rat bone marrow can be differe...

Exposure to cigarette smoke is an etiological factor of human pancreatic cancer and has been associated with an increased risk of pancreatic diseases, including pancreatitis and diabetes. The toxicants in cigarette smoke can reach pancreatic tissue, and most of the toxicants require cytochrome P450 (P450)-mediated metabolic activation to exert their toxicity. Among all the human P450 enzymes, C...

Islet amyloid has been suggested to be an important link between insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. To investigate the prevalence and clinicopathological characteristics of islet amyloid, we examined consecutive autopsies of 235 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes and 533 nondiabetic subjects. Islet amyloid deposits were identified using Congo red staining and qu...

It was estimated that every year more than 30000 persons in the United States - approximately 80 people per day - are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). T1D is caused by autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic islet (β cells) cells. Islet transplantation has become a promising therapy option for T1D patients, while the lack of suitable tools is difficult to directly evaluate of the viabilit...