Metabolic Effects of Restoring Partial -Cell Function After Islet Allotransplantation in Type 1 Diabetic Patients

Successful intraportal islet transplantation normalizes glucose metabolism in diabetic humans. To date, full function is not routinely achieved after islet trans-plantation in humans, with most grafts being charac-terized by only partial function. Moreover, the duration of full function is variable and cannot be sufficiently predicted with available methods. In contrast, most grafts retain partial function for a long time. We hypothesized that partial function can restore normal protein and lipid metabolism in diabetic individuals. We studied 45 diabetic patients after islet transplanta-tion. Labeled glucose and leucine were infused to assess whole-body glucose and protein turnover in 1) 6 type 1 diabetic patients with full function after intra-portal islet transplantation (FF group; C-peptide&gt