Successful treatment of streptozotocin diabetes of the rat by transplantation of the islets from a single donor pancreas.
A new digestion chamber was developed which made it possible to isolate 500 islets from the pancreas of one adult rat. The mesh chamber enabled us to remove islets out of the collagenase solution as soon as they are separated from pancreatic tissue. The islet injury due to collagenase was diminished, and the time of warm ischemia during digestion was considerably reduced. With this method it was possible to treat the diabetes successfully in eight of 14 rats. The condition of the remaining six rats was considerably improved, and no animal died due to diabetes during 90 days of surveillance as compared to a 50% death rate in the diabetic control group. A cataract did not occur in any transplanted rat, whereas it was observed in all surviving animals of the diabetic control group. If the complete separation of endocrine and exocrine tissue in a density gradient was abandoned the transplantation results improved significantly.
D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001835:Body Weight; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000601:surgery*; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D013311:Streptozocin
D001786:Blood Glucose; D013311:Streptozocin