Islet transplantation in Japan—Report from Japanese Islet Transplantation Registry—

Abstract

Improvements in islet transplantation outcomes were achieved using anti-thymocyte globulin as an induction therapy, and eventually, in 2020, islet transplantation obtained coverage under Japanese national health insurance. Unfortunately, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, no cases of islet transplantation were performed in that year. However, in 2022, six islet transplantation procedures were successfully conducted for five cases of type 1 diabetes, following two cases in 2021. In this report, we present the clinical islet transplantations performed in 2022, along with the recent performance status of pancreas transplantation, which shares the pancreatic graft from brain-dead donors with islet transplantation.