title: Islet transplantation in spontaneously diabetic BB/Wor rats.
abstract: We investigated the effectiveness of islet transplantation as therapy in an animal model of spontaneous type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. Grafting MHC-matched and -mismatched islets with the spontaneously diabetic BB rat as a model has been previously reported to result in recurrence of the disease in the grafted tissue. When transplanted with nonimmunogenic islets isolated by nonenzymatic culture, we found that MHC-matched grafts proved to be susceptible to disease recurrence when allowed to remain in situ until ketosis developed in the host. Conversely, the MHC-mismatched grafts did not succumb to the disease process despite the destruction of the beta-cell population of the endogenous pancreas. Four manifestly hyperglycemic BB/Wor rats received sufficient islet mass by allotransplantation to reverse this state. All four animals had ameliorated conditions, and three of the four were restored to a normoglycemic state. Recurrence of diabetes in the BB rat was not observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neuroanatomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
authors.forename: O D
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Hegre
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Enriquez
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ketchum
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Weinhaus
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Serie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000276:immunology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000276:immunology; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation; D007668:Kidney; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011913:Rats, Inbred BB; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D012008:Recurrence; D014181:Transplantation Immunology; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous