Joslin Research on Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology
Type 1 diabetes develops after insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed. One of the most promising areas of diabetes research involves beta cell replacement to restore insulin production. It has the proven potential to be a very dramatic and viable cure for type 1 diabetes.
Research in the Joslin Research Section on Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology is truly "bench to bedside," as investigators apply insights gained through basic research to clinical studies aimed at improving the success of islet cell transplantation. The goal of this research is to transplant healthy insulin-producing beta cells into a person with diabetes to return them to a non-diabetic state and to also protect the transplanted islets from the immune system attack that caused the diabetes in the first place.
Gordon C. Weir, M.D., Head of the Section on Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology at Joslin and holder of the Joslin Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation Chair, has assembled a group of scientists who work together, focusing their efforts on both finding a satisfactory source of insulin-producing tissue and developing methods for preventing this tissue from being destroyed by immune rejection and autoimmunity. This section continues to make important progress, focusing on overcoming the challenges of this science:
Identifying Sources of Insulin-Producing Cells for Transplantation
There is an extremely limited supply of islets available for transplantation. Joslin's basic research program continues to explore and find new sources of islet cells so that more patients may benefit from this possible cure. For example, Joslin's Susan Bonner-Weir, Ph.D., and her group of researchers have succeeded in making new islets from precursor cells. Dr. Bonner-Weir named these new cells cultivated human islet buds (CHIBs). Moreover, scientists across the globe have confirmed Dr. Bonner-Weir's findings and also see this area as having exceptional promise.
Protecting Islets from Immune Destruction
Joslin researchers are examining ways to preserve and protect the islets that are available. With the shortage of islet cells, it is imperative that Joslin researchers and physicians find ways to prevent transplant rejection and minimize the risk that transplanted islets will be destroyed by the body's immune system. Scientists in Dr. Weir's laboratory work in close collaboration with immunologists at Joslin and other Harvard institutions to find better ways to control destruction of transplanted islets by immune rejection and autoimmunity.
The Clinical Islet Transplantation Program
Scientists in the Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology Section at Joslin, led by Dr. Weir, collaborate with colleagues at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Center for Islet Transplantation at Harvard Medical School to increase the success of islet transplantation in people. The Human Islet Core Facility at Joslin is working closely with a national consortium of 10 islet production facilities, Islet Resource Center, to improve the production of islet cells for transplantation.
As of 2004, islets from Joslin's Islet Core have been transplanted into 14 people with diabetes. Seven have been able to maintain normal blood glucose levels without requiring insulin, and others are expected to become insulin-independent with an additional transplant.
