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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

A Method for Murine Islet Isolation and Subcapsular Kidney Transplantation
Published on: April 13, 2011
Role of hyperglycemia in isogeneic islet transplantation: an experimental animal study
I Nomikos1, K Kalogerakos, E Athanasiou
1Department of Surgery (B' Unit), "METAXA" Cancer Memorial Hospital, Piraeus, Greece.
Objective:
Study the role of hyperglycemia-induced beta cell loss on grafted islet destruction.
Design:
Male inbred rats were made diabetic by streptozotocin administration and used as islet donors and/or isograft recipients to probe directly the role of hyperglycemia as an important determinant of transplanted islet fate, following exclusion of immune-related causes of islet graft destruction like allograft immunity and disease recurrence.
Results:
Our studies showed that: a) Hyperglycemia destroyed islet but not pituitary isografts and b) Tight control of normoglycemia by sufficient islet mass engraftment prevented graft damage.
Conclusion:
While sustained hyperglycemia caused destruction of transplanted islet isografts, induction of normoglycemia by transplantation of sufficient islet mass to diabetic recipients had a beneficial long term effect on their functional engraftment.

