ABSTRACT
During the last two decades, islet cell transplantation has been pursued both experimentally and clinically in an effort to ameliorate diabetes mellitus. At present, however, islet cell transplantation still remains at the experimental stages as far as the treatment of diabetes is concerned. Also, culture of islet cells has proved to be rather frustrating and difficult. No consistent techniques have been developed, and simplified methods for islet cell preparation and adequate sites for islet cell placement would allow for further progress in this area. Ultimately, rejection remains the greatest obstacle to success. We report a simplified technique for enriching dog pancreatic islet cells. This preparation was injected into the renal subcapsular space in both homograft (3 experiments) and heterograft (3 experiments) situations. After six weeks, nephrectomy was performed, and histochemical techniques demonstrated many groups of live islets in between the tubules in the renal cortex. No acinar cells were observed. Blood samples from the renal artery and renal vein at the time of nephrectomy revealed an average 36.9% increase in insulin concentraction on the renal veins, supporting an active secretory role of these transplanted islet cells. This technique points to (i) the possible role of a "renal factor" in promoting growth of islet cells and (ii) the feasibility of successful transplantarion of enriched islet cells as a potential approach to the curative treatment of diabetes mellitus