This Monday, November 14, is World Diabetes Day, a disease that affects nearly 3.5 million people in France. The opportunity to highlight a new treatment for type 1 diabetes: pancreatic islet transplantation.
The technique consists of implanting islets of Langerhans in the patient’s liver. These are the cells of the pancreas responsible for the secretion of insulin and which will be taken from a non-diabetic and brain-dead donor.
Regulate sugar levels
A transplant which, however, requires lifelong anti-rejection treatment, but which changes the lives of patients. No more fear of hypoglycemic coma because the technique allows the patient to type 1 diabetes regulate their sugar levels significantly without having to inject insulin daily. A revolution for these patients who do not benefit from any therapeutic alternative.
Twenty years of research were needed to develop pancreatic islet transplantation. In France, it was the regional hospital center of Lille which first performed this type of transplant in December 2021.
A few hundred patients
Today, if only a few hundred diabetics can benefit from this treatment, doctors are already planning to apply it to other types of patients who have failed treatment, such as those with pancreatic disease or cystic fibrosis.
► Also to listen: Priorité Santé – All your questions about diabetes