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

Abstract

In 2023, due to the temporary suspension of the supply of an islet-isolation enzyme, islet isolation could not be performed at islet transplant facilities for a period of time; clinical islet transplantation was performed in only one case in Japan.

The annual number of islet isolation and transplantation performed from the resumption of islet transplantation in 2012 to 2023 was 1-6 cases, except 0 cases in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-one islet isolations were performed in the 10 years to 2023, of which 26 resulted in sufficient islet yield for islet transplantation. The success rate of islet isolation is very high at 83.9%. In particular, when islet isolation is limited to brain-dead donors, 21 islet transplants were performed out of 24 isolation cases, resulting in an islet isolation success rate of 87.5%.

Although the problem of shortage of donors for islet transplantation is now greatly improved due to the increase in the number of brain-dead organ donations, and the success rate in islet isolation is very high, the number of islet transplants performed has fluctuated from year to year and not has increased the number of islet transplants, greatly affected by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the instability of the supply of islet-isolation enzyme.