Update of tacrolimus in pancreas transplantation

Pancreas transplantation for the better treatment of diabetes mellitus is becoming an important part of the service offered to diabetic patients requiring renal transplantation. Improvements in surgical technique make this a useful option. A major problem, limiting more extensive use of pancreas transplantation to other diabetic patients, remains the inadequacies of present immunosuppressive regimens. A relatively new agent, FK506 or tacrolimus, is being used increasingly because of perceived benefits over older therapeutic agents. There are concerns about the diabetogenic effect of tacrolimus. These may be dose-related, and low-dose tacrolimus regimens, by allowing reduction in dosage of other diabetogenic immunosuppressive agents, have produced encouraging results in pancreas transplantation in many centres. Further improvements in immunosuppressive regimens may widen the clinical implications for pancreas transplantation but identifying the patient group who will most benefit remains a priority.