Gene therapy technique could aid islet transplants for diabetes, says Pittsb...( PITTSBURGH Feb. 4 Treating pancreatic...),Health

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 4 Treating pancreatic islet cells with a growth factor can dramatically reduce the number of these cells needed for transplants to reverse Type 1 diabetes, according to a study by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers. In the animal model study, researchers also found that the triple-drug immunosuppression therapy currently used after human islet cell transplants is harmful to transplanted rat pancreatic islets and can actually induce diabetes in rats.

"This study suggests that the current immunosuppression regimen might be further optimized or changed and has potential implications for further improving islet transplant outcomes in humans with Type 1 diabetes," said senior author Andrew Stewart, M.D., chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism and professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The research is published in the February 2004 issue of the journal Endocrinology and on line at http://endo.endojournals.org/.

"On the positive side, by using a rat model that closely mimics events occurring in human islet transplant recipients, we found that introducing a growth factor DNA to pancreatic islet beta cells (the cells that produce insulin) before transplantation induces cell division and greatly enhances the cells' function and survival," said Dr. Stewart. "That is good news for the 1.6 million people with Type 1 diabetes because the procedure may help surmount difficulties currently posed by the limited availability of human pancreatic islet cells.

"The disappointing news is that we also discovered, much to our surprise, that the three immunosuppressive drugs commonly prescribed for patients after islet cell transplantation induced marked insulin resistance and beta cell toxicity in the models used in our studies, actually inducing diabetes and reducing the function of their new islet cells. This was true even
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Contact: Frank Raczkiewicz
RaczkiewiczFA@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
4-Feb-2004

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