title: Islet transplantation: lessons learned since the Edmonton breakthrough.
abstract: This work sought to summarize the main issues of the last decade in the field of clinical islet transplantation. Ten years ago in Edmonton, a new protocol initiated for islet transplantation brought a breakthrough to the field. The earlier, rather poor results were in a sharp contrast to the first published results of 100% insulin freedom at 1 year. However, later it became clear that the promising initial results decline with time; at around 5 years, only about 10% of the patients maintain freedom from external insulin. Despite that fact, a milestone was set and intensive research started worldwide. New hopes were raised for patients. Modifications of the original protocol have been implemented to improve clinical results; however, islet transplantation remains an experimental procedure to date.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplantation and Surgery, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. roblanger@hotmail.com
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Langer
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000601:surgery*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D010180:Pancreatectomy / Q000379:methods; D018579:Patient Selection; D014019:Tissue Donors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose