Device-Less Technique in Islet Transplantation

Plain-language summary

Islet transplantation is an effective modality for treating type 1 diabetes. Despite marked progress in clinical islet transplantation with the achievement and maintenance of insulin independence in over half of recipients up to 5 years, transplant approaches are limited to those that struggle to control their diabetes. Furthermore, this approach remains restricted due to the scarcity of human pancreas donors. While transplanting insulin-producing cells into the liver has been demonstrated as an efficacious means of restoring glycemic control to patients with T1D, the procedure often results in cell loss, and carries risks. Moreover, transplant in to the liver does not permit imaging or retrieval of donor islets. The ability to retrieve the cells is also important for safety reasons. In theory, the space under the skin is an attractive alternate site for transplanting insulin producing cell, due to ready access, and potential for monitoring cellular transplant function through novel imaging techniques. However, transplantation of insulin producing cells into an unmodified site under the skin universally fails to reverse diabetes in research animal models, or in human studies. Other techniques using devices with different type of technologies and biomaterials have been explored with variable success. Unfortunately, the foreign body and inflammatory reaction persist in the implant. Shapiro Lab, has developed a novel technique called 'device-less' (DL) transplant modality. This approach was designed to harness an innate foreign body response in a favorable and controlled manner, to induce growth of new blood vessels to allow the survival of the insulin producing cells without the natural body response to foreign body. Briefly, this site transforms the inhospitable under the skin site into a viable location through the temporary implantation of a small tube called angiocatheter. For this study, 5 patients will received transplant in to the modified site under the skin using the DL transplant technique.

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