The Pancreatic Islet Transplantation or what is known as the Edmonton Protocol is an experimental procedure that makes use of islets extracted from the pancreas of a recently deceased organ donor.
The process involves the transplant of said islets to a patient suffering from diabetes type 1. The beta cells of these transplanted islets are expected to produce the insulin lacked by the type 1 diabetes patient. This experiment then, hopes to provide the cure for diabetes mellitus.
Diabetes type 1 is that diabetic condition where the beta cells of the pancreas is unable to produce insulin as a result of the attacks launched by the body’s immune system. The transplantation of islet therefore is expected to provide a cure for diabetes type 1 patients, which will enable them to live a normal life free from insulin dependence.
Although the diabetes type 2 condition deals with insulin resistance, it has been noted that the diabetic condition of the patient will also develop to insulin decline or progress later on as diabetes type 1. Many supporters of the Pancreatic Islet Transplantation believe that this will also be a cure for diabetes type 2 to relieve sufferers of their eventual need for insulin injections.
The islets referred to here are the cluster of cells or tissues known in the medical world as Islets of Langerhans. These islets are microscopic and are scattered throughout the pancreas forming part of the endocrine glands. They contain the cells which secret the beta cells that produce the insulin necessary for glucose absorption and any failure of these islets to produce these beta cells lead to diabetes mellitus or type 1 diabetes.
Although clinically promising at first, a 5-year follow-up after the transplantation procedure was made and the results were not as favourable as expected. Only ten percent of the patients remained free of insulin dependence while the rest went back to the use of insulin shots since the transplanted islets eventually lost its ability to produce insulin.
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The only benefits that the latter group of patients gained, was their less demand for insulin since the patients were able to achieve glucose stability. Hence, to date, pancreatic transplantation has not gained the medical support as the ultimate cure for diabetes.
It is also believed that the eventual failure of the transplanted islet to produce insulin was also attributed to the body’s immune system. The beta cells produced by the transplanted islets were also attacked by the body’s immune system. Hence, in the same way that the natural beta cells of the body were impaired, the patient still suffers from diabetes mellitus or diabetes type 1.
Critics say that it was actually a project doomed from the beginning; others pointed out that the root of the insulin impairment problem was the inability of the immune system to recognize insulin beta cells as essential to digestive functions, instead of treating these insulin cells as bacteria.
Perhaps, further experimentations therefore in the search for the elusive cure for diabetes should have more concern in orienting the auto–immune system on how to recognize friendly and non-friendly substances found in the body.
