Noninvasive diagnosis of recurrent autoimmune type 1 diabetes after islet cell transplantation

Islet cell transplantation is curative therapy for patients with complicated autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D). We report the diagnostic potential of circulating transplant islet-specific exosomes to noninvasively distinguish pancreatic β cell injury secondary to recurrent autoimmunity vs immunologic rejection. A T1D patient with hypoglycemic unawareness underwent islet transplantation and maintained normoglycemia until posttransplant day 1098 before requiring exogenous insulin. Plasma analysis showed decreased donor islet exosome quantities on day 1001, before hyperglycemia onset. This drop in islet exosome quantity signified islet injury, but did not distinguish injury type. However, analysis of purified transplant islet exosome cargoes showed decrease in insulin-containing exosomes, but not glucagon-containing exosomes, indicating selective destruction of transplanted β cells secondary to recurrent T1D autoimmunity. Furthermore, donor islet exosome cargo analysis showed time-specific increase in islet autoantigen, glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65), implicated in T1D autoimmunity. Time-matched analysis of plasma transplant islet exosomes in 3 control subjects undergoing islet cell transplantation failed to show changes in islet exosome quantities or intraexosomal cargo expression of insulin, glucagon, and GAD65. This is the first report of noninvasive diagnosis of recurrent autoimmunity after islet cell transplantation, suggesting that transplant tissue exosome platform may serve as a biomarker in islet transplant diagnostics.