2006 research review: islet replacement

2006 research review > Cure Therapy: Islet Replacement

Cure Therapy: Islet Replacement

We continue to gain experience and make scientific and clinical progress in islet replacement therapies, such as transplantation. During the year, JDRF research centers focused on transplantation began experimenting with new and potentially more effective transplant sites in the body, and performed transplants using new combinations of drugs that are potentially less toxic than those used in the breakthrough Edmonton trials from several years ago. And through our $30 million partnership with the Australian government announced last September, the Islet Transplant Program in Australia is developing and preparing to test other promising new transplantation protocols.

As is the case in all our therapeutic goal areas, partnerships with industry are exploring potential therapeutic advances in this field. A Phase I clinical trial, implemented through JDRF's Industry Discovery and Development Partnership program with the biotechnology company Novocell, is testing an innovative encapsulation technique designed to prevent transplant rejection. The protocol involves placing islets within a protective sheath made of polyethylene glycol and then implanting them under the skin of individuals with type 1 diabetes.

Because the demand for islet cells staggeringly outweighs the current supply of donor pancreases, JDRF-supported research in FY2006 continued to explore both adult and embryonic stem cells, as well as opportunities to develop alternative methods of deriving islets for use in replacement therapies, such as animal cell sources. Last year, JDRF funded over $10 million in adult and embryonic stem cell research projects in 12 countries, in many cases using its funds to leverage matching grants from local governments.

On the stem cell front, in the past year, a number of researchers successfully discovered new protocols to generate definitive endoderm, the first step in differentiating embryonic stem cells into functioning beta cells. At Lund University in Sweden, JDRF-funded researchers led by Henrik Semb found that if human embryonic stem cells are placed into an embryonic mouse pancreas, the environmental cues allow the stem cells to be coaxed into becoming mature cells that resemble pancreatic beta cells.

JDRF also supported research evaluating the use of non-human islet sources for transplantation, known as xenotransplantation. Bernhard Hering, a JDRF-funded researcher at the University of Minnesota, successfully reversed diabetes in monkeys using transplanted islet cells from pigs. And at the JDRF Center for Islet Cell Transplantation at Emory University, Christian Larsen reported similar success in transplanting immature pig islets into diabetic monkeys. Both studies opened the way for the development of protocols for utilizing pig islets in humans.

JDRF has created a special research program, which will be funded in FY2007, to further refine the procedure to allow Phase I clinical trials of pig islet transplantation in humans.

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