Short-term anti-rejection treatment protects grafts in diabetic animals

Pancreatic islets transplanted into diabetic animals can survive for a long time if the animals are treated with short-term anti-rejection treatment at the time of transplantation. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Institute for Diabetes Research at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami in the United States have demonstrated this reality in a new study published in diabetology (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]). The findings could have a significant impact on clinical islet transplantation in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

The transplantation of pancreatic islets with their insulin-secreting cells is a promising treatment in type 1 diabetes. However, a complication is that anti-rejection therapy, in the form of a deletion Generalized immune system is necessary to ensure the survival and function of grafted islets by preventing the immune system from attacking grafts.

It is well known that prolonged use of generalized immunosuppression may have serious adverse side effects to the transplant patient. In addition, an immune attack against grafted islets can still occur despite continued immune suppression. As a result, the field of transplantation has sought new ways to ensure the long-term survival and function of transplanted islets with little or no immunodepression.

This new study demonstrates the potential for long-term survival and function of pancreatic islets grafted with short-term anti-rejection therapy at the time of transplantation. In mice and grafted monkeys, this strategy resulted in immune tolerance that allowed the survival of grafted islets long after stopping anti-rejection therapy.

"These results support the establishment of immune tolerance to transplanted islets, and thus their long-term protection against immune attack in transplant patients after discontinuation of anti-cancer treatment." -reject, "said Dr. Midhat H Abdulreda, first author of Diabetes. Research Institute.

This new way of achieving immune tolerance could minimize the need for lifelong immune suppression, which gives hope for effective treatment of type 1 diabetes with fewer side effects.

"If these results are repeated in humans, this approach could change the game and have a positive impact on the success of islet transplantation for the future treatment of type 1 diabetes," says Prof. Per -Olof Berggren, lead author of the Rolf Luft Research Center. Diabetes and endocrinology at the Karolinska Institute.

The research was funded by funds from the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF) and the Diabetes Wellness Foundation, as well as grants from the Stanley J. Glaser Foundation Research Award, NIH / NIDDK / NIAID, Swedish Diabetes Association Fund, Swedish Research Council, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Family Erling-Persson Foundation, Diabetes Strategic Research Program at Karolinska Institutet, ERC-2013-AdG 338936-BetaImage, Knut Foundation and Alice Wallenberg, Skandia Insurance Company Ltd, Diabetes and Well-being Foundation, Berth von Kantzow Foundation and Stichting af Jochnick Foundation.

Per-Olof Berggren is co-founder and CEO of Biocrine, an unlisted biotechnology company that uses the cell transplant approach in the anterior chamber of the eye as a research tool. Midhat H Abdulreda is a consultant for the same company. You will find more information about the technique in the scientific article.

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Karolinska Institutet