Abstract
This study was undertaken to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of intravenous (i.v.) injection of islets, via a peripheral vein, in the treatment of experimental diabetes in highly inbred Lewis rats. Rats were made diabetic by the i.v. injection of streptozocin, and donor islets were isolated from neonatal rats. Two wk after the induction of diabetes, rats with glucose concentrations > 19 mM were divided into two groups: one group of six rats was injected with 2000 neonatal islets into the external jugular vein; the second group of rats, acting as control, was injected in the same vein with medium alone. Within 2 wk of the islet transplant, 100% (6/6) of the rats were cured of the diabetes. None of the control rats experienced any improvement. As expected, pancreatic islets so administered embolized to the lungs. Glucose tolerance tests in the rats receiving the islet transplant were indistinguishable from normal rats. These results could be important to clinical transplantation if the procedure is as successful in larger animals using autotransplanted islets or allografts protected from immune rejection.
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