Abstract
Pancreatic islet transplantation is a promising option for the treatment of type 1 diabetic patients that experience hypoglycemic unawareness despite maximal care. After the successful demonstration of the Edmonton protocol, more than 600 patients with type 1 diabetes in more than 50 institutions have received islet transplantation to treat their disease. Islet transplantation has advanced significantly on several fronts, including pancreatic ductal protection, improved pancreas preservation systems, a new islet purification method, and culture/preservation of isolated islets. These techniques are now used for clinical islet transplantation. Our method makes it feasible to use these pancreata efficiently for islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes.
