Diabetic animals treated with alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) after an islet transplantation procedure can be effective to inhibit the reasons leading to failure of transplantation, as per researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Dr. Eli Lewis, director of the Clinical Islet Laboratory at BGU, remarked that the use of a safe, non-steroidal and non-toxic drug can be made to effectively block inflammation by targeting multiple inflammatory molecules.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Human pancreatic islet transplantation is a vital option for type-1 diabetes patients. In this procedure, globally performed in over 50 centers, islets are collected from donors soon after death in a sterile laboratory. At the same time, a diabetic transplant candidate is reached and a transplantation team is recruited. In this relatively simple surgical procedure, islets are introduced into the liver under local anesthesia, and covered by minimal immunosuppression, complete insulin independence is achieved.

Unfortunately, islet mass is rapidly reduced after engraftment by robust local inflammation. Even more unfortunate for the grafted cells, there is no anti-inflammatory coverage due to the removal of steroids from immunosuppression protocol. For this reason, the typical islet recipient will receive at least two grafts in order to restore glucose levels. But perhaps the most discouraging information is that five-year islet cell function follow-up studies reveal unacceptably high islet erosion caused in part by unrestrained ongoing inflammation. There is, therefore, great demand for an anti-inflammatory islet survival regimen that is safe, feasible and effective.

Diabetic patients administered with transplanted human pancreatic islet cells can benefit from restored glucose levels and insulin injections.