Guide To Treating Chronic Pancreatitis

Autologous Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplant

An autologous pancreatic islet cell transplant is a procedure that involves the infusion of the patient's own islet cells into the liver's portal vein. This procedure is only necessary for patients who have pancreatitis that has destroyed most of their pancreatic tissues and deemed the organ non-functional. A pancreatectomy procedure is performed to extract the damaged and diseased pancreas. The removal of the entire pancreas can provide considerable relief to individuals with severe chronic pancreatitis, but it results in an unavoidable complication of type 1 diabetes. The autologous pancreatic cell transplant was designed to mediate this complication by providing a way for the patient's body to make insulin in the absence of the pancreas. This procedure works to accomplish this by infusing the islet cells from the removed pancreas so they become lodged in the liver blood vessels. Once in the blood vessels, the islet cells are activated and produce insulin. Because this is an autologous transplant, there are zero risks of tissue rejection involved. This procedure does not always prevent diabetes after a pancreatectomy, but it does increase the chances of having a milder form of diabetes.

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