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Keeping Diabetes at Bay After Transplant |
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- In research with mice, a new anti-inflammatory drug called lisofylline prevented diabetes recurrence after transplantation of insulin-manufacturing pancreatic islet cells.
University of Virginia Health System researchers report their finding in the Jan. 20 issue of Transplantation.
In recent years, pancreatic islet cell transplantation has become a promising treatment for people with type 1 diabetes. However, without powerful immunosuppressive drugs, those transplanted islet cells would be destroyed by the body's immune system.
This study suggests lisofylline may have the potential to help prevent this destruction by preserving insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells in the presence of autoimmune attackers called inflammatory cytokines.
"Our findings are very encouraging and we are excited that lisofylline worked so well in this animal model," Dr. Jerry Nadler, chief of the University of Virginia's division of endocrinology and metabolism and director of the Diabetes and Hormone Center of Excellence, says in a prepared statement.
"We have discovered a potentially new way to protect islet cells in a clinical transplant setting. It's possible this research could form a basis for additional studies to use [the drug] or related anti-inflammatory compounds in humans to limit the need for more toxic immunosuppressant drugs in islet cell transplant patients," Nadler says.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about islet cell transplantation.
(SOURCE: University of Virginia Health System, news release, Jan. 20, 2004)
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