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Patient transplanted in LUMC with cells from removed pancreas


Diabetes

‘Such an autotransplantation prevents difficult to treat diabetes with the loss of the pancreas. The intervention went well, ‘says the LUMC. The patient’s pancreas had to be removed because of a chronic inflammation with a lot of pain. However, the pancreas also contains the cells that deliver insulin to the blood, the so-called beta cells in the islets of Langerhans. Thus, pancreas removal also means removal of these important cells and loss of insulin production. This often leads to difficult-to-treat diabetes. The patient is being treated in Leiden, because the LUMC specializes in both pancreas removal and islet transplantation.

Islets by IV

To prevent diabetes from developing after pancreas removal, insulin-producing cells have been ‘transplanted’ back into the patient. This procedure can only be performed in a specialist center. After the pancreas has been removed, it is taken to a special laboratory in the LUMC where the islets of Langerhans are removed. The islets are then immediately returned to the patient’s body. This is done through an infusion into the portal vein, through which the cells end up in the liver.

Sugar values

The procedure went well and the transplanted cells function, but the final effect will only be clear in one or two months. ‘The effect on the sugar values ​​depends on how many islets can be returned. The inflammation of the pancreas often causes damage to the insulin-producing beta cells. But the more functioning cells can be returned, the easier the body can regulate sugar levels. And sometimes diabetes that requires insulin can even be prevented, ‘says professor of Diabetology Eelco de Koning.

Islets of Langerhans

Leiden has a long history of transplant medicine, but this intervention was nevertheless special. ‘We have been transplanting islets from Langerhans since 2007. Until recently, however, we only did this with islets from donor glands in people with mainly type 1 diabetes. This is the seventh time that an autotransplantation of islets from Langerhans has been performed in the Netherlands, six of which in Leiden. We are going to do this more often in the LUMC in people with difficult-to-treat chronic inflammation of the pancreas’, say the surgeons Volkert Huurman and Bert Bonsing.

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