Pancreatic islet transplantation in type 1 diabetes: 20-year experience from a single-centre cohort in Canada

A focused review on three-dimensional bioprinting technology for artificial organ fabrication

“…154 Pancreatic islet transplantation is a good potential treatment option for patients with type 1 diabetes who have unstable blood glucose control. 155 Duin et al combined islet encapsulation with 3D extrusion bioprinting. Using a plottable hydrogel blend of clinically approved ultrapure alginate and methylcellulose (Alg/MC), they encapsulated pancreatic islets in macroporous 3D hydrogel constructs.…”

β cell replacement therapy for the cure of diabetes

“…Importantly, 73% of recipients required an islet re‐infusion 5 . In a Canadian group, the average graft survival period was 5.9 years and only 8% of patients remained insulin independent at 20 years after transplantation 4 . Similarly, C‐peptide stimulation was sustained longer than 5 years after the islet transplantation in a Japanese group 6 .…”

“…According to the Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry (CITR) report, 1,086 patients received allogenic islet transplantation during 1999–2015 3 . After many years of experience, researchers have refined the islet transplantation protocol and have identified conditions (proper immunosuppressant use – a combination of anakinra and etanercept, IEQ ≥325,000, a recipient age ≥35, BETA‐2 ≥15) for a favorable outcome 3 , 4 . Under the clinical islet transplantation (CIT)‐07 protocol, the majority of patients with type 1 diabetes who underwent islet transplantation (87.5% in 1 year, 71% in 2 years) achieved stable glycemic control (HbA1c <7% without severe hypoglycemia) 5 .…”

From Antiquity to Modern Times: A History of Diabetes Mellitus and Its Treatments

“…This work paved the way for the first successful human islet transplantation by Thomas Starzl’s (1926–2017) group in Pittsburgh in 1990 [202]. At first, success was limited, but a high proportion of grafts now have long-term survival and insulin secretory capacity as a result of modifications to the isolation of islets and immunosuppression regiments, as reported in large cohorts [203-205].…”