A pretreatment step could help transplanted pancreatic islets survive longer in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. One combination of small molecules extended the cells’ lives in female mice, and adding two molecules to the mixture boosted cell survival in male mice.
The findings, published on June 24 in Cell Stem Cell, could allow physicians to treat more patients with fewer cells.
In type 1 diabetes, autoimmune cells attack the pancreatic islets, destroying the insulin-producing beta cells and leaving patients dependent on insulin injections. The current FDA-approved transplant procedure replaces these cells with pancreatic islet cells from one or more deceased organ donors. It typically takes up to 48 hours to isolate islets from the donor for injection into a vein that carries them to the recipient’s liver. Once in the liver, the islet cells begin producing insulin, just as they would in a healthy pancreas.
