Important advances in the transplantation of islets of Langerhans have recently been achieved using alginate-based microcapsules (De Vos 2006). These microcapsules safely protect the transplanted cells from graft rejection in the absence of long-term immunosuppression. Recent progress has allowed us to effectively eliminate the development of fibrosis surrounding the implanted microcapsules (De...

Insulin is released from the pancreas in pulses with a period of ~ 5 min. These oscillatory insulin levels are essential for proper liver utilization and perturbed pulsatility is observed in type 2 diabetes. What coordinates the many islets of Langerhans throughout the pancreas to produce unified oscillations of insulin secretion? One hypothesis is that coordination is achieved through an insul...

In the week following pancreatic islet transplantation, up to 50% of transplanted islets are lost due to apoptotic cell death triggered by hypoxic and pro-inflammatory cytokine-mediated cell stress. Thus, therapeutic approaches designed to protect islet cells from apoptosis could significantly improve islet transplant success. IGF2 is an anti-apoptotic endocrine protein that inhibits apoptotic ...

The pancreas is a dual-function organ featuring both endocrine and exocrine tissue. Endocrine functionality is provided by approximately one million cell clusters called the islets of Langerhans. Islets consist of four main cell types, 1) ┙ cells: secrete glucagon (increases glucose in blood); ┚ cells: secrete insulin (decreases glucose in blood); ├ cells: secrete somatostatin (regulates ┙ and ...

V. Herynek, Z. Berková, D. Horák, M. Babic, D. Jirák, F. Saudek, and M. Hájek MR-Unit, Department of Radiodiagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic, Center for Cell Therapy and Tissue Repair, Second Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, Pancreatic Islet Laboratory, Diabetology Clinic, Institute for Cl...

THE ultimate test of viability of separated human islets is functional activity after transplantation into a diabetic recipient. Morphologic identification of insulin-containing transplanted islets could provide important correlative data and eventually confirm the functional results. The present report describes identification of intrahepatic islet tissue following human islet allotransplantat...

A small-for-dates male infant who developed acute metabolic acidosis shortly after birth had diabetes and died aged 40 hours. At necropsy there was an absence of any recognizable islets of Langerhans though lymphorecticular aggregates were found. This was the fourth child of healthy unrelated parents whose first child, also a male, died at 48 hours under similar circumstances. It is suggested t...