The unique innervation pattern of the human islets of Langerhans has been described in two articles in the Nature Medicine and Cell Metabolism. These results will have major implications for future development of novel drugs for the treatment of diabetes. Hormone release by the endocrine pancreas is regulated by the autonomic, non-voluntarily, nervous system, consisting …
A promising way to delay onset of type 1 diabetes is to reduce the concentration of apolipoprotein CIII (apoCIII) in blood. This discovery is presented in a newly published article in PNAS from June 2011. It took twice as long for the rats that have undergone therapy reducing apoCIII to develop …
New success of the InSight* technology is now presented in an article in PNAS from July 18th, 2011. Using this unique technology in a mouse model, reactions of the immune system to implanted islets of Langerhans were for the first time observed in a living organism. Following an allogeneic transplantation of beta …
Endothelial cells lining surfaces of donor islets promote a faster initial blood vessel formation after transplantation. The results are published in Diabetes in October 2011. Patients with type 1 diabetes lack insulin, as the majority of the pancreatic beta cells producing this vital hormone have been destroyed. Transplanting donor islets of Langerhans, built up primarily …
Insulin shots for patients with type 1 diabetes can become history. A novel site to transplant donor islet of Langerhans may give a chance to cure patients’ own failing insulin production. When transplanted into the anterior chamber of the eye of a diabetic monkey, pancreatic islets survive and produce insulin, reducing …