First islet transplant conducted in Adelaide
A South Australian woman has become the first person to receive an islet transplant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide.
Margaret Harrigan, a teacher from Adelaide, is producing her own insulin for the first time since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 36 years ago after receiving an islet transplant in January.
Margaret had spent years living with hypoglycemia unawareness – severe and uncontrollable blood glucose fluctuations that made day-to-day living almost impossible. Four weeks after the transplant, Margaret has almost halved her insulin requirement and is free of dangerous low blood sugar attacks.
This is an exciting milestone for the Australian Islet Transplantation Program with each of the three centres in NSW, VIC and SA now having the expertise and facilities to isolate islets from donors and transplant into recipients.
Whilst the procedure was undertaken in SA, it was a truly national effort with Victorian researchers isolating the islets from the donor pancreas and the NSW team providing expert assistance.
Fourteen Australians have benefited from the Islet Transplantation Program to date with three patients now completely free of insulin injections. Find out more about this program at http://itp.jdrf.org.au.
What is required to ensure the immune system does not attack the new islet cells?
This is great news and another step closer to a cure!
THAT IS SOOOO TOTALLY WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a 12 year old boy that was diagnosed last year and i hope that they make a cure very very very very sooooooon
keep up the good work
Great effort guys, all the hard work is much apprieciated! What factors, in relation to the patient 's diabetic management, are looked at, when a person is considered for this type of treatment?
Hi Thommo,
All information about the selection criteria is available here: http://itp.jdrf.org.au/index.php?page=how-do-i-ap...
As a summary, to be eligible for this program your diabetes specialist must certify that you fit all of the following criteria:
• Age 18-65 years
• Type 1 diabetes for over five years
• Checking blood glucose levels at least 3 times each day
• Have at least three insulin injections per day (or using an insulin pump)
• Experiencing unstable diabetes with multiple hypoglycaemic episodes
• Lack of awareness of hypoglycaemia
• Hypoglycaemia requiring assistance
• Have progressive complications, for example: retinopathy, nephropathy or neuropathy
Regards
JDRF
Wow that's great. Lucky lady.
Great question The Stig, I was wondering the same thing. Until they find the cause of the immune system attacking islet cells there's nothing stopping these news cells getting attacked as well. It would be great to get excited that a cure might be coming soon, but …. Still its a huge step forward – well done JDRF. Diagnosed nearly 3 years ago at 26, been pumping for 8 months.
You have raised a very important point! At the moment, people who undergo islet transplantation are required to take life long immuno-suppression medication. This is to prevent organ rejection and also to stop the recurrent autoimmune attack on the new cells caused by type 1 diabetes. Immuno-suppression drugs can be dangerous, which is why islet transplantation is not available yet to everyone.
The good news is there is lots of exciting research going on in this area. JDRF researchers are making great progress towards finding ways to stop and reverse the autoimmune attack. They are also working to modify transplanted islets to make them ‘invisible’ to the immune system. Watch this space for research breakthroughs as they happen.
I hope all goes well for that lady. Well done JDRF
this is my teacher, margaret harrigan