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The UCSF Islet and Cellular Transplantation Center provides two new procedures involving islet cell transplants. One is a non-surgical, minimally invasive transplant that could provide a cure for the millions of people with type 1 diabetes. The second procedure is called an islet autotransplantation, coupled with a pancreatectomy or removal of the pancreas, for patients with severe chronic pancreatitis. We are one of the few medical centers in the world that offers this advanced procedure.

Islet Transplant for Type I Diabetes

During an islet transplant for type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing beta cells — contained in clusters called islets — are isolated from a cadaver donor's pancreas, then injected through the skin into the portal vein of the recipient's liver. The islet cells flow into the liver, lodge in small blood vessels and release insulin.

The procedure temporarily reverses diabetes, allowing many recipients to discard their blood glucose meters, pumps and syringes to live free from diabetes for the first time in their lives. But much work remains to be done.

After a transplant, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications — which have potential side effects — for the rest of their lives to prevent transplant rejection.

UCSF Medical Center is one of the few medical centers outfitted to perform islet transplantation.

Because there's a shortage of donor organs to provide islet cells, UCSF's world-renowned islet cell researchers are seeking new approaches to "growing" insulin-producing cells in the laboratory and looking for ways to make islets regenerate from adult stem cells that remain in the diabetic pancreas. We are among the world's leaders in the research of "immune tolerance" therapies — new, safer alternatives to current immunosuppressive drug therapies used to prevent the rejection of islet transplants.

Islet Autotransplantation for Chronic Pancreatitis

Patients with chronic pancreatitis have the option of having an auto — meaning "self" — islet transplant after a total pancreatectomy, which is the removal of the entire pancreas. A pancreatectomy is usually performed to relieve pain in patients when all other treatments fail, but it induces permanent diabetes, requiring patients to take insulin shots or use an insulin pump for the rest of their lives.

An islet autotransplant after a pancreatectomy would preserve a patient's ability to secrete insulin and reduce the risk of developing surgically induced diabetes.

During an islet autotransplant, the patient's own islet cells are isolated from the removed pancreas. They are then put back into the patient, where they start producing insulin.

Pancreatectomy patients who have an islet autotransplant have a 50 percent chance of becoming insulin dependant for life rather than a 100 percent chance without the islet autotransplant.

For more information please call:
Islet and Cellular Transplantation Center (415) 353-8893
Islet Autotransplantation for Chronic Pancreatitis (415) 353-2161