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The UCSF Islet and Cellular Transplantation Center is dedicated to providing a cure for the millions of people with type 1 diabetes through a new kind of non-surgical and minimally invasive transplant involving islet cells. Our experts also offer a new procedure called an islet autotransplantation, coupled with a pancreatectomy or removal of the pancreas, to 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, where they 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 are wrought with potential side effects — for the rest of their lives to prevent transplant rejection. And few medical centers are outfitted and trained in the art of 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 their total pancreatectomy, which involves removing the entire pancreas. While a pancreatectomy is usually effective in relieving pain in patients when all other treatments fail, it induces permanent diabetes, requiring patients to take insulin shots or use an insulin pump for the rest of their lives.

However, an islet autotransplantation, performed after a pancreatectomy, helps alleviate the severe pain caused by chronic pancreatitis, while preserving a patient's ability to secrete insulin and reducing the risk of developing surgically induced diabetes.

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

Patients who have a pancreatectomy with an islet autotransplant have a 50 percent chance of becoming insulin dependant for life, while patients who have had just a pancreatectomy have a 100 percent chance of becoming permanently insulin dependant.

For more information please call:
Islet and Cellular Transplantation Center (415) 353-8893