Grant to Expand Islet Cell Transplant Research at University of Alberta

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation announced a five-year $23.8 million (Cdn) grant to the University of Alberta, designed to further that center's research into treatment of diabetes through islet cell transplantation.

The research will build on the success of the so-called Edmonton Protocol, in which islet cells from the pancreases of deceased donors are implanted into the liver of a diabetic. Researchers say that in the 24 patients who have thus far received such a transplant, 80 percent are insulin-free two years later.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation said that the grant will support research into challenges associated with the Edmonton Protocol. These include:

• The fact that two donor pancreases are required to obtain enouch islets for one patient and there are relatively few pancreases available.
• The fact that it is still difficult to extract islets from the donated pancreas in a way that makes them pure enough for transplantation.
• The fact that researchers cannot distinguish well between high quality islets, which are very likely to survive transplantation, and low quality islets.
• The need to overcome "alloimmunity," the body's normal defenses that turn on against foreign tissues whenever any kind of transplant takes place.

"These studies are central to further understanding how we can use islet transplantation to cure people with Type 1 diabetes," said Dr/ James Shapiro, Director of JDRF Clinical Centre, University of Alberta. "Now we need to concentrate on how to alleviate the problems still associated with this procedure.

Other sources: JDRF