Skip to main content
Log in

Type 2 Diabetes: Is Pancreas Transplantation an Option?

  • Transplantation (A Pileggi, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Diabetes Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

    We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Abstract

Transplantation of the whole vascularized pancreas can provide insulin secretion in patients with insulin-dependent, type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). It restores euglycemia in most patients, with the potential to impact the chronic diabetic complications and quality of life. Pancreas transplantation (PT) is presently controversial for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). For those patients with severe glycemic dysregulation, T2D can be associated with the same life-threatening sequelae as T1D such as severe hypoglycemia and kidney failure that could be corrected by pancreas (and kidney) transplantation. Thus, clinical indications and patient selection criteria are very important. This chapter will review the current status of PT for T2D and discuss the options and evolution of transplant perspectives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

  1. Leichtman AB, Cohen D, Keith D, et al. Kidney and pancreas transplantation in the United States, 1997–2006: the HRSA Breakthrough Collaboratives and the 58 DSA Challenge. Am J Transplant. 2008;8(4 Pt 2):946–57.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Burke GW, Ciancio G, Sollinger HW. Advances in pancreas transplantation. Transplantation. 2004;77(9 Suppl):S62–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ciancio G, Burke GW, Miller J. Current treatment practices in immunosuppression. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2000;1:1307–30.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Ciancio G, Mattiazzi A, Roth D, Kupin W, Miller J, Burke GW. The use of daclizumab as induction therapy in combination with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil in recipients with previous transplants. Clin Transplant. 2003;17(5):428–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Burke GW, Ciancio G. Critical care issues in the renal and pancreatic allograft recipient. In: Civetta JM, Taylor RW, Kirby RR, editors. Critical care. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company; 1997. p. 1311–5.

    Google Scholar 

  6. White SA, Shaw JA, Sutherland DE. Pancreas transplantation. Lancet. 2009;373(9677):1808–17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Stumvoll M, Goldstein BJ, Van Haeften TW. Type 2 diabetes: pathogenesis and treatment. Lancet. 2008;371(9631):2153–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Ferchak CV, Meneghini LF. Obesity, bariatric surgery, and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2004;6:438–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Sampaio MS, Kuo HT, Bunnapradist S. Outcomes of simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation in type 2 diabetic recipients. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2011;6:1198–206.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Wiseman AC, Gralla J. Simulatenous pancreas kidney transplant versus other kidney options in patients with type 2 diabetes. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2012;7:656–64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Gruessner AC. 2011 update on pancreas transplantation: comprehensive trend analysis of 25,000 cases followed up over the course of twenty-four years at the International Pancreas Transplant Registry (IPTR). Rev Diabet Stud. 2011;8:6–16.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Scalea JR, Cooper M. Surgical strategies for type II diabetes. Transplant Rev. 2012;26:177–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. American Diabetes Association Expert Committee. Report of the expert committee on the diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care. 2003;26:S5–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ciancio G, Sageshima J, Chen L, et al. Advantage of rapamycin over mycophenolate mofetil when used with tacrolimus for simultaneous kidney transplant recipients: randomized, single-center trial at 10 years. Am J Transplant. 2012;2:3363–76. This paper illustrates long-term survival of pancreas transplantation in a randomized prospective trial.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Nath DS, Gruessner AC, Kandaswamy R, et al. Outcomes of pancreas transplants for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Clin Transplant. 2005;19:792–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Orlando G, Stratta RJ, Light J. Pancreas transplantation for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2010;16:110–5. This paper provides evidence that some patients with T2D will benefit from pancreas transplantation.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Singh RP, Rogers J, Farney A, et al. Do pretransplant C-peptide levels influence outcomes in simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation? Transplant Proc. 2008;40:510–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Light JA, Barhyte DY. Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants in type I and type II diabetic patients with end-stage renal disease. Similar 10-year outcomes. Transplant Proc. 2005;37:1283–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Esmatjes E, Fernandez C, Rueda S, et al. The utility of the C-peptide in the phenotyping of patient candidates for pancreas transplantation. Clin Transplant. 2007;21:358–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Burke GW, Ciancio G, Olson L, Roth D, Miller J. Ten-year survival after simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplantation with bladder drainage and tacrolimus-based immunosuppression. Transplant Proc. 2001;33(1–2):1681–3.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. White SA, Shaw JA, Sutherland DE. Pancreas transplantation. Lancet. 2009;373(9677):1808–17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Nathan DM, Cleary PA, Backlund JY, et al. Intensive diabetes treatment and cardiovascular disease in patients with type 1 diabetes. NEJM. 2005;353:2643–53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Friedman AL, Friedman EA. Pancreas transplantation for type 2 diabetes at U.S. transplant centers. Diabetes Care. 2002;25:1896.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Sasaki TM, Gray RS, Ratner RE, et al. Successful long-term kidney-pancreas transplants in diabetic patients with high C-peptide levels. Transplantation. 1998;65:1510–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Light JA, Sasaki TM, Currier CB, Barhyte DY. Successful long term kidney-pancreas transplants regardless of C-peptide status and race. Transplantation. 2001;71:152–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Nath DS, Gruessner AC, Kandaswamy R, Gruessner RW, Sutherland DER, Humar A. Outcomes of pancreas transplants for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Clin Transplant. 2005;19:792–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Margreiter C, Resch T, Oberhuber R, Aigner F, Maier H, Sucher R, et al. Combined pancreas-kidney transplantation for patients with end-stage nephropathy caused by type-2 diabetes mellitus. Transplantation. 2013;95:1030–6. This paper reports recent experience with pancreas transplantation in T2D patients.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Vendrame F, Pileggi A, Laughlin E, et al. Recurrence of type 1 diabetes after simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantatiom, despite immunosuppression, is associated with autoantibodies and pathogenic autoreactive CD4 T-cells. Diabetes. 2010;59:947–57.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Coppelli A, Giannarelli R, Vistoli F, et al. The beneficial effects of pancreas transplant alone on diabetic nephropathy. Diabetes Care. 2005;28(6):1366–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Fioretto P, Mauer SM, Bilous RW, Goetz FC, Sutherland DE, Steffes MW. Effects of pancreas transplantation on glomerular structure in insulin-dependent diabetic patients with their own kidneys. Lancet. 1993;342(8881):1193–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Fioretto P, Steffes MW, De Sutherland, Goetz FC, Mauer M. Reversal of lesions of diabetic nephropathy after pancreas transplantation. N Eng J Med. 1998;339(2):69–75.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Fioretto P, Sutherland DE, Najafian B, Mauer M. Remodeling of renal interstitial and tubular lesions in pancreas transplant recipients. Kidney Int. 2006;69(5):907–12.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Giannarelli R, Coppelli A, Sartini MS, et al. Pancreas transplant alone has beneficial effects on retinopathy in type 1 diabetic patients. Diabetologia. 2006;49(12):2977–82.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Pearce IA, Ilango B, Sells RA, Wong D. Stabilisation of diabetic retinopathy following simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant. Br J Ophthalmol. 2000;84(7):736–40.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Hathaway DK, Hartwig MS, Milstead J, Elmer D, Evans S, Gaber AO. Improvement in quality of life reported by diabetic recipients of kidney-only and pancreas-kidney allografts. Transplant Proc. 1994;26(2):512–4.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Navarro X, Sutherland DE, Kennedy WR. Long-term effects of pancreatic transplantation on diabetic neuropathy. Ann Neurol. 1997;42(5):727–36.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Guerra G, Ilahe A, Ciancio G. Diabetes and kidney transplantation: past, present, and future. Curr Diab Rep. 2012;12(5):597–603.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Meier-Kriesche HU, Stegall MD. Should we be performing pancreas transplants? Am J Transplant. 2004;4(12):1935–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Dean PG, Kudva YC, Larson TS, Kremers WK, Stegall MD. Posttransplant diabetes mellitus after pancreas transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2008;8(1):175–82.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

Conflict of Interest

Gaetano Ciancio declares that he has no conflict of interest.

George W. Burke has received financial support through a grant and support for travel to meetings from the Institut Georges Lopez (IGL).

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaetano Ciancio.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Transplantation

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ciancio, G., Burke, G.W. Type 2 Diabetes: Is Pancreas Transplantation an Option?. Curr Diab Rep 14, 542 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0542-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0542-9

Keywords

Navigation