Since the development of the Edmonton Islet Transplantation Protocol, islet transplantation has given new hope to patients with type 1 diabetes. Like solid organ transplantation, one of the biggest challenges islet transplantation faces is the shortage of available donor tissue. Finding an alternative source of islet tissue has become an increasingly important field of study. The possibility of...

Islet and pancreas transplantation may compete for a limited number of organs. We analyzed records from the national Swiss transplant registry during a 4-year period to investigate the proportion of donors that are suitable for islet and pancreas transplantation. Suitability for pancreas transplantation was mainly defined as: age 10-45 years; weight <or= 80 kg; BMI <or= 25 kg/m(2); amylasemia <...

Bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs) play a significant role in cell therapy. These cells quickly die after transplantation to the affected area due to oxidative stress. The natural disaccharide, trehalose which can be known as autophagy inducer. The present study aimed to investigate the role of trehalose in preventing BMSCs from oxidative stress caused by H2O2. BMSCs were isolated from the ...

Islet transplantation is a promising therapy for treatment of type 1 diabetes. A real breakthrough was reported when the Edmonton protocol was introduced in 2000. This protocol induced insulin independence in diabetic patients for 1 year (1). Although these clinical islet transplantations demonstrated the application of the technique, the long-term function of the islet grafts was not that succ...

Alloimmunity has been uncovered to be a cause of graft loss representing a major barrier for clinical islet transplantation, and several studies are designed to evaluate new strategies for immunosuppression to prevent alloimmunity. In contrast, the significance for autoimmune destruction of transplanted beta-cells has remained somewhat controversial. Recently, two case reports based on histolog...

Oxidative stress is a major mediator of adverse outcomes throughout the course of transplantation. Transplanted kidneys are prone to oxidative stress-mediated injury by pre-transplant and post-transplant conditions that cause reperfusion injury or imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants. Besides adversely affecting the allograft, oxidative stress and its constant companion, inflammation, ca...

AIM/HYPOTHESIS Rat pancreatic islet cell apoptosis is minimal after prolonged culture in 10 mmol/l glucose (G10), largely increased in 5 mmol/l glucose (G5) and moderately increased in 30 mmol/l glucose (G30). This glucose-dependent asymmetric V-shaped profile is preceded by parallel changes in the mRNA levels of oxidative stress-response genes like Metallothionein 1a (Mt1a). In this study, we ...

We have previously reported the preparation of vascularized islet-kidneys (IKs) by transplantation of islets under the autologous kidney capsule. Here, we compare the efficacy of transplanting vascularized versus nonvascularized islets into diabetic allogeneic swine recipients. In the vascularized islet transplantation (5,000 islet equivalents [IE]/kg), recipients received minor-mismatched (n =...

The number of pro-α cells is known to increase in response to β cell injury and these cells then generate glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), thus attenuating the development of diabetes. The aim of the present study was to further examine the role and the mechanisms responsible for intra-islet GLP-1 production as a self-protective response against lipotoxicity. The levels of the key enzyme, proho...

BACKGROUND Tacrolimus (TAC)-induced pancreatic islet injury is one of the important causes of new-onset diabetes in transplant recipients. This study was performed to evaluate whether a dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV) inhibitor is effective in improving TAC-induced diabetes mellitus by reducing pancreatic islet injury. METHODS Rats were treated with TAC (1.5 mg/kg, subcutaneously) and the DP...