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Researcher tricks immune system in diabetic mice
Date:11/20/2008

CHICAGO -- The body's immune system hates strangers. When its security patrol spots a foreign cell, it annihilates it.

This is the problem when people with type 1 diabetes undergo human islet cell transplantation. The islet cells from a donor pancreas produce robust amounts of insulin for the recipient -- often permitting independence from insulin therapy. However, the immune system tries to kill the new hard-working islets.

A person who has the transplant procedure must take powerful immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting the cells. The drugs, however, are toxic to the new islet cells and put patients at risk for infections and cancer.

Now researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine have found a way to trick the immune system of mice into believing those transplanted islets are its own cells. This new technique eliminated the need for the immunosuppressive drugs in mice with chemically-induced diabetes after they had islet transplantation.

"We made the recipient feel that the donor cells are their own," explained Stephen Miller, co-principal investigator and the Judy Gugenheim Research Professor of Microbiology-Immunology at the Feinberg School. "This technique is a highly attractive potential therapy for human islet cell transplantation." The findings were reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the fall.

As many as 3 million people in the U.S. may have type 1 diabetes, a disease that develops in children and adolescents. There are about 50 to 70 islet transplants, an experimental procedure, annually in North America.

Miller said he was happily surprised to see that such a high percentage of recipients of the transplanted islet cells -- greater than 70 percent -- maintained transplants long-term. His research showed the host's tolerance to these transplanted cells seemed to be permanent, lasting for at least 150 days. X
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Contact: Marla Paul
Marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Source:Eurekalert

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