This cross-sectional study based on self-administrated questionnaire was conducted to investigate knowledge, related factors, and sources of information regarding islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes in Japan. Among 137 patients who provided valid responses, 67 (48.9%) knew about islet transplantation. Their main source of information was newspapers or magazines (56.7%) and te...

The primary cells that participate in islet transplantation are the endocrine cells. However, in the islet microenvironment, the endocrine cells are closely associated with the neurovascular tissues consisting of the Schwann cells and pericytes, which form sheaths/barriers at the islet exterior and interior borders. The two cell types have shown their plasticity in islet injury, but their roles...

Islet cell transplantation is a promising beta cell replacement therapy for patients with brittle type 1 diabetes as well as refractory chronic pancreatitis. Despite the vast advancements made in this field, challenges still remain in achieving high frequency and long-term successful transplant outcomes. Here we review recent advances in understanding the role of inflammation in islet transplan...

Islet transplantation is an attractive treatment for selected patients with brittle type 1 diabetes. In the clinical setting, intraportal transplantation predominates. However, due to extensive early islet cell death, the quantity of islets needed to restore glucose homeostasis requires in general a minimum of two donors. Moreover, the deterioration of islet function over time results in few in...

In his Perspectives in Diabetes (1), Robertson asked whether islet transplantation achievements should be considered a partial failure or a partial success. This question, which would sound naïve for bone marrow, skin, or organ transplantation, is actually more than germane for islet transplantation. So far, no study has formally compared the outcomes of patients with type 1 diabetes receiving ...

B cells participate in the priming of the allo- and autoimmune responses, and their depletion can thus be advantageous for islet transplantation. Herein, we provide an extensive study of the effect of B-cell depletion in murine models of islet transplantation. Islet transplantation was performed in hyperglycemic B-cell-deficient(μMT) mice, in a purely alloimmune setting (BALB/c into hyperglycem...

Islet transplantation for diabetes is limited by the availability of human islet donors. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent beta-cell mitogen and survival factor and improves islet transplant outcomes in a murine model. However, the murine model employs renal subcapsular transplant and immunodeficient mice, features not representative of human islet transplantation protocols. Therefore,...

The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is able to survive a variety of stress conditions leading to the colonization of different niches like the food processing environment. This study focuses on the hypervariable genetic hot spot lmo0443 to lmo0449 haboring three inserts: the stress survival islet 1 (SSI-1), the single-gene insert LMOf2365_0481, and two homologous genes of the nonpatho...

Since the early pioneering work of Ballinger and Reckard demonstrating that transplantation of islets of Langerhans into diabetic rodents could normalize their blood glucose levels, islet transplantation has been proposed to be a potential treatment for type 1 diabetes. More recently, advances in human islet transplantation have further strengthened this view. However, two major limitations pre...

Islet transplantation is a novel promising strategy to cure type 1 diabetes. However, the long-term outcome is still poor, because both function and survival of the transplant decline over-time. Non-invasive imaging methods have the potential to enable monitoring of islet survival after transplantation and the effects of immunosuppressive drugs on transplantation outcome. (111)In-labeled exendi...