Today, under the leadership of Fouad R. Kandeel, MD, PhD, Director, Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism, City of Hope is playing an important role in a nationwide collaborative effort to explore islet cell transplantation as a treatment for Type 1 diabetes.
Islets are a collection of cells in the pancreas that are responsible for the production of insulin. They are carefully removed from the pancreas of a donor, purified and injected into the liver of the recipient. Early studies of islet cell transplantation have been very promising, with a significant number of diabetic patients being freed from the need for daily insulin injections.
In 2002, City of Hope received recognition and funding from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to become one of 10 national islet cell resource and transplantation centers. City of Hope has also established a consortium among leading academic institutions in Southern California, known as the Southern California Islet Consortium (SC-IC), to further the study of islet cell transplantation as a possible cure for Type 1 diabetes. And on April 7, 2004, the SC-IC conducted its first islet cell transplantation. Later that same month, a second patient received islet transplantation on April 28, 2004.
In May 2004, City of Hope became the first islet transplant center, without a whole organ transplantation program, to become a member of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS is a national organization that oversees and coordinates the sharing of donated human organs, such as the pancreases that are used to obtain islets, among transplant centers across the U.S. The Histocompatibility Laboratory (HLA) at City of Hope was also approved by UNOS to perform all of the islet donor and recipient HLA tissue typing and cross match tests for the islet transplantation program.
City of Hope is currently recruiting patients for this program. If you feel that you qualify, please contact the City of Hope at 866-44-ISLET (866-444-7538).
To view an informational video, please visit our video page and click on the video titled Diabetes Islet Cell Transplantation.