Islet Cell Transplantation

Transplantation of islet cells – cells in the pancreas that produce insulin – promises to be a cure for Type I diabetes, not just a treatment. With the assistance of generous grants from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NewYork-Presbyterian Transplant Institute is actively involved in islet cell research and will initiate clinical trials in transplanting these cells.

The first pre-clinical stage of the program involves refining the removal of the cells from the cadaveric pancreas, developing a method for reducing the number of these fragile cells eventually needed for transplantation (currently cells from one or two pancreatas are necessary), improving their preservation, and conducting gene research to further understand rejection. To accomplish this, the Institute has established two centers – the NIH Regional Islet Isolation Resource Center for Metropolitan New York at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia and the JDRF Center for Gene Therapy and Islet Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. Researchers at both these research centers collaborate by sharing their expertise and their findings and by working at both centers.

Patients who will qualify for the islet cell transplantation must either be Type I diabetics with frequent bouts of hypoglycemia or Type I diabetics who have had a successful kidney transplantation (i.e., have been stable for six months) and are on specific immunosuppression. The surgery is based on a procedure first applied successfully at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. After the patient is given local anesthesia, the islet cells are infused through a catheter into the portal vein of the liver where the cells will grow and mimic normal insulin secretion in response to sugars in the blood circulation. The process takes as few as 15 minutes and is relatively free of any risks. Patients will be carefully followed by a team of diabetologists, surgeons and scientists who will adjust specific immunosuppression that is not injurious to islets.