Effect of islet transplantation on metabolic glucose control in rats with diabetes

BACKGROUND: Transplantation of pancreatic islets has been extensively investigated as a strategy for glycemic control in experimental animals and in patients with diabetes. We investigated whether islet transplantation allows us to obtain adequate islet function during glucose stimulation using a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) in the rat. METHODS: We investigated four groups of eight rats each: healthy rats (controls), rats with diabetes, and rats with diabetes transplanted with microencapsulated islets in the peritoneal cavity or transplanted with free islets under the kidney capsule. Syngeneic islets were isolated from Lewis rats. After diabetes induction and islet implantation, when glycemia was stable, a glucose sensor was implanted, and an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) was performed to evaluate islet function. Interstitial glucose levels were analyzed, using a theoretical model, to estimate kinetics of glucose metabolism. RESULTS: Islet transplantation was effective in inducing normoglycemia in both groups, but results of IPGTTs showed that in animals with islets transplanted in microcapsules values of area under the curve and total glucose elimination constant (k(tot)) were significantly different from those in control animals and that these differences were even more important in animals with islets implanted under the kidney capsule. CONCLUSIONS: Our present investigation demonstrates that the application of CGMS was effective in evaluation of glucose metabolism by islet transplantation and indicates that efficient diabetes control can be achieved with this technology.