Biological Sciences: Isolation of the Islets of Langerhans for Transplantation

Abstract

PANCREATIC transplantation with the aim of treating diabetes mellitus has so far met with little success. Of 23 patients thus treated and reported to the Transplant Registry in 1971¹, 15 died within 3 months and the longest survived one year. One of the major problems has been to overcome pancreatic exocrine digestion, and pancreatic duct ligation (“Banting pancreas”) before transplantation has been performed. It was shown by Dragstedt², however, that dogs treated in this way often became diabetic or showed a diabetic glucose tolerance test after several months, probably due to fibrosis and consequent ischaemia of the Islets. Transplantation of the wholegland with its vascular supply is a major undertaking and the problems of thrombosis, leakage and digestion, coupled with immunological rejection, have prevented success so far.