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The DRI’s goal is to cure type 1 diabetes by giving patients back the ability to produce their own insulin.
Recent clinical trials have shown that islet transplantation can restore insulin production, while preventing hypoglycemia and greatly reducing the risk for long-term complications.
As is the case with other transplant recipients, those who receive islet transplants must take immunosuppressive -- or "anti-rejection" -- drugs to prevent their immune system from rejecting the newly transplanted islets.
These drugs, which need to be taken for life, often cause many unwanted side effects, including damage to the islets themselves.
Recent progress in immunology and transplantation is changing the way scientists think about the challenge posed by transplant rejection. They believe that transplanted islets could function indefinitely if the recipient’s immune system could be “taught” to accept the islets as “self.”
The DRI is pursing several approaches to transplant islet cells without the long-term need for immunosuppressive therapy.
>>Selectively Targeting Immune Cells
The DRI is testing specific highly selective antibodies that can halt the rejection process without shutting down the patient’s entire immune system.
>>Transplant Tolerance: Re-educating the Immune System
Researchers have identified certain cell types that can help educate the immune system to recognize the donor cells as “self,” creating a state of tolerance to transplanted tissue.
>> Establishing Self-Tolerance
At the DRI, scientists are working to re-educate the immune system and restore self-tolerance to insulin.
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Those who receive islet transplants must take immunosuppressive -- or "anti-rejection" -- drugs to prevent their immune system from rejecting the newly transplanted islets
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