Remember that the information presented here is not intended to replace the care of your own doctor. Before making any changes in the management of your own illness, you should consult your physician or other qualified medical professionals.
Question
Please let me know where they are doing islet cell transplants for people with diabetes. How can I contact them?Answer
Islet cell transplantation (removing the islets which contain the beta cells from a donor pancreas, and later putting these islets into a person with diabetes) is presently actively undergoing evaluation. Although transplanting islet cells may one day help people with diabetes, it must be emphasized that this procedure is still in the research stage.A list of participating centers in a NIH Initiative is published at NIH Announces New Clinical Trials of Promising Transplant Therapy for Diabetes; it included:
- University of Alberta Clinical Islet Transplantation Program, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
- Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Center for Islet Transplantation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
- Diabetes Research Training Center, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
- Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, Washington
- Organ/Tissue Transplant Research Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
- Islet Transplant Centre, Justis-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
- San Raffaele Scientific Institute, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
Note: Many times, a hospital has tried one or two pancreas transplants, but I would strongly advise anyone interested in learning more about this procedure to have their doctor contact one of the medical centers that have a long track record, with publications that discuss their success (and failure) rate.
Also, please see two previous questions: can you send information on pancreas transplantation? and how can I get put on the list for a pancreas transplant?, and two discussions: pancreatic islet transplantation and pancreatic islet transplantation to treat type 1 diabetes.
