Living-Donor Diabetes Procedure a Success

Japanese researchers have for the first time cured diabetes with a pancreatic cell transplant from a living donor, according to a report last week in the international medical journal the Lancet.

Implants of insulin-secreting islet cells from cadaver pancreases are an increasingly common procedure in the United States and have been shown to provide long-lasting freedom from insulin shots. A successful implant usually requires islet cells from at least two cadavers.

Dr. Shinichi Matsumoto and his colleagues at the Kyoto University Hospital reasoned that islets from a living donor would be more viable and more likely to function properly than those from a cadaver. If that was true, then fewer cells would be required.

They tested their theory on Jan. 19, removing half the pancreas from a 56-year-old woman, harvesting the islet cells and then implanting them into the woman’s 27-year-old daughter. The daughter had required insulin shots for 12 years, and her diabetes was very poorly controlled.

Within 22 days they weaned her off insulin shots, Matsumoto reported. She has remained insulin-free, he said, but long-term follow-up will be necessary. Even if she begins to require insulin shots again, the residual islet cells should make it much easier to control blood sugar levels, he said.

The technique could prove useful in Japan, where organ donations after death are rare because of cultural considerations. It could also be helpful in the United States -- where it has been unsuccessfully attempted twice -- because of a continuing shortage of pancreases from cadavers.