Clinical Islet Transplantation: Where Do We Stand on? / 대한이식학회지

ABSTRACT

Islet transplantation had been suggested as a potential treatment modality for type I diabetes mellitus for the last two decades. The methods for the islet isolation and purification were developed. In 2000, the excellent clinical outcomes from the Edmonton group were reported. And various basic researches were performed for the elucidation of the mechanism of initial islet loss. Although the Edmonton protocol, which had initially raised hopes that all the technical and immunologic problems would be solved, recently revealed as a limited success within the selective cases and short-term follow-up, these inspirations led us to the subsequent clinical or basic research of islet transplantation. As a result, many clinical trials and studies have been attempted for the establishment of the optimal immune suppression regimen, the prevention from islet loss in the process of isolation, and the improvement of the intraportal engraftment. This article reviews the history and the recent progress and possible strategies for the clinical islet transplantation.