A major national-consortium model for islet cell transplantation has resulted in the development of a life-saving clinical procedure for high-risk type 1 diabetes sufferers with life-threatening \u2018hypoglycaemia unawareness\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Commonwealth-funded Australian Islet Transplantation Program (ITP) includes researchers and\u00a0clinicians from Sydney\u2019s Westmead Hospital and Westmead Millennium Institute, the University of\u00a0Sydney, Melbourne\u2019s St Vincent\u2019s Hospital, St Vincent\u2019s Institute of Medical Research, and Adelaide\u2019s\u00a0Queen Elizabeth Hospital.<\/p>\n
Results of Australian patients who underwent the islet transplantation procedure have now been\u00a0published in the American Journal of Transplantation.\u00a0The paper reports the outcomes of the patients who underwent the procedure, many of whom are now\u00a0insulin free. These patients were all high-risk type 1 diabetes sufferers experiencing life-threatening and\u00a0undetectable hypoglycaemia (or low blood glucose) that was unable to be managed with conventional\u00a0treatments.<\/p>\n
Describing results as \u201cremarkable\u201d, Professor Phillip O\u2019Connell, Chair of the Consortium, Director of\u00a0Transplantation at Westmead Hospital and Director of Transplantation and Renal Research at\u00a0Westmead Millenium Institute, said, \u201cThis significant research and clinical trial has provided a lifesaving\u00a0treatment that has the potential to change lives of patients with hypoglycaemia unawareness.\u00a0\u201cOur advanced islet cell transplant procedure has resulted in many of these patients now being insulin\u00a0free\u201d.<\/p>\n
Professor Phillip O\u2019Connell, said, \u201cPatients with type 1 diabetes, who suffer from hypoglycaemia\u00a0unawareness, do not get the usual symptoms when their blood sugar drops.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can result in prolonged hypoglycaemia, seizures, loss of consciousness, brain damage or even\u00a0death. There are about 150,000 people with type 1 diabetes in Australia, and of these about 10 percent\u00a0are affected by \u2018hypoglycaemia unawareness\u2019.\u201d Prof O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n
Islet cell transplantation is a relatively non-invasive procedure in which insulin-producing islets are\u00a0taken from organ donors and transplanted into a recipient\u2019s liver.<\/p>\n
The procedure was first conducted at Westmead Hospital in Sydney in 2003, for patients with high-risk\u00a0type one diabetes and \u2018hypoglycaemia unawareness\u2019.<\/p>\n
The islet isolation process requires highly specialised centres, and Westmead and St Vincent\u2019s\u00a0Hospitals being the only facilities in Australia to perform the islet isolation procedure.<\/p>\n
Professor Philip O\u2019Connell, who was recently announced as President-Elect of the Transplantation\u00a0Society from 2014-16, said that findings such as the ones reported by the Australian consortium\u00a0continue to not only improve islet transplantation around the world, but also open up possibilities for\u00a0other cell therapies through the new model and clinical procedure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThis same model of care also has the potential to be used for other cell therapies including immune\u00a0deficiencies and cancer immunotherapy,\u201d said Professor O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
In 2006 the Australian Department of Health and Ageing partnered with JDRF and granted $30 million\u00a0to develop clinical islet cell transplantation as a treatment for people with this severe form of type 1\u00a0diabetes. This follows an initial pledge of $5 million donation from the Susan Alberti Research\u00a0Foundation.<\/p>\n
Dr Dorota Pawlak, Head of Research Development, JDRF, said, \u201cDr Philip O\u2019Connell and the\u00a0consortium\u2019s efforts in the area of islet transplantation have produced internationally recognised results\u00a0that will speed the progress towards a better life for people with type 1 diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A major national-consortium model for islet cell transplantation has resulted in the development of a life-saving clinical procedure for high-risk type 1 diabetes sufferers with life-threatening \u2018hypoglycaemia unawareness\u2019. The Commonwealth-funded Australian Islet Transplantation Program (ITP) includes researchers and\u00a0clinicians from Sydney\u2019s Westmead Hospital and Westmead Millennium Institute, the University of\u00a0Sydney, Melbourne\u2019s St Vincent\u2019s Hospital, St Vincent\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2446,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2490","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}