Transplanting pancreatic islets to cure diabetes Image Dual immunostaining of islet transplantation; Green – glucagon; red - insulin Research Methods and Objectives Islet transplantation, where islets from donor pancreases are transplanted into the liver of patients with Type 1 diabetes, has the potential to cure Type 1 diabetes. However islets from up to 3 donor pancreases may be required for each patient because islets “engraft” or form blood vessels very poorly within the liver they are transplanted into. Working with Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, who have manufactured human umbilical cord perivascular mesenchymal stromal cells (HUCPVC) to GMP grade, we have demonstrated that when the HUCPVCs are co-transplanted with islets into diabetic mice, they promote engraftment of islets, improving blood glucose control as compared with transplantation of islets alone. This means that, potentially, islets from one donor pancreas may be used in the future to cure diabetes, enabling more patients to be transplanted. Our aim is to understand further how HUCPVCs improve islet engraftment and take these cells into first-in-man clinical trials. Image Vessel assessment post islet transplantation Principal Investigator, Co-Investigators, Other researchers Principal Investigators: Shareen Forbes - University of Edinburgh and John DM Campbell – Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service Collaborators: Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service Team members involved in this programme: Paul Borgoyne, June Noble, Gary Borthwick, Andrew Bond, Kay Samuel, Kayleigh Thirlwell, Alisdair Fraser Funding Chief Scientist Office This article was published on 2024-03-19
