[Future prospect of diabetes therapy (author's transl)]

The treatment of diabetes may be improved by a more physiological insulin supply and by supplements to the insulin supply. Grafting the entire pancreas or transplantation of the islet cells represents an improvement in the insulin supply. But because fo the lack of donor material and immunological difficulties, the realization of these two methods may be questionable. On the other hand the implantation of an artificial B cell seeems realizable in the foreseeable future. Such a method would be indicated in a diabetic whose life is threatened by late complications. Somatostatin is available as a supplement to insulin therapy because it eliminates the growth hormone as possible source of diabetic vascular complications and it blocks the secretion of hormones with a contrainsular effect.