Islet cell transplantation after pancreas removal may help preserve normal blood sugar
2014-12-10
(Press-News.org) Surgery to remove all or part of the pancreas and then transplant a patient's own insulin-producing islet cells appears to be a safe and effective final measure to alleviate pain from severe chronic pancreatitis and to help prevent surgically induced diabetes, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery.
Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease that over time leads to loss of function of the pancreas and manifests with intractable pain, malabsorption and diabetes. While medical management and pain control are the initial approaches to CP, some patients need to undergo more invasive procedures to relieve ductal pressure in the pancreas. If those measures fail, surgical options can include total removal of the pancreas (total pancreatectomy, TP) or the Whipple procedure to remove part of the pancreas. Total pancreas removal produces diabetes because insulin-secreting cells are removed. Autologous islet transplantation (AIT) was first described in the 1970s as a potential way to preserve normal blood glucose levels after near-total or total pancreas removal. However, few medical centers worldwide offer such treatment for patients with CP, according to background information in the study.
Denise S. Tai, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-authors examined the outcomes of nine patients (5 male) who underwent pancreatic resection and AIT at the UCLA Center for Pancreatic Diseases between March 2007 and December 2013. It was a two-center collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, handling isolation of the islet cells from the pancreatic tissue after removal.
Results show that eight of nine patients had successful procedures to isolate islet cells after their total or partial pancreas removal. Two of the patients did not require insulin and one required a low dose. All nine patients had less pain or were pain free two months after surgery.
"Pancreatic resection with AIT for severe CP is a safe and effective final alternative to ameliorate debilitating pain and to help prevent the development of surgical diabetes. It is practiced at only a few specialized centers worldwide because of the need for multidisciplinary coordination and care of these patients. ... However, with the practice of geographically remote islet isolation by means of institutional collaboration, many more patients with CP may have access to and may greatly benefit from this procedure," the authors conclude.
INFORMATION:
(JAMA Surgery. Published online December 10, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2014.932. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Media Advisory: To contact corresponding author Gerald S. Lipshutz, M.D., M.S., call Enrique Rivero at 310-794-2273 or email erivero@mednet.ucla.edu.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-12-10
MINNEAPOLIS - People who have sleep apnea or spend less time in deep sleep may be more likely to have changes in the brain that are associated with dementia, according to a new study published in the December 10, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study found that people who don't have as much oxygen in their blood during sleep, which occurs with sleep apnea and conditions such as emphysema, are more likely to have tiny abnormalities in brain tissue, called micro infarcts, than people with higher levels ...
2014-12-10
A team of researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and environmental testing firm URS reports that a small subset of natural gas wells are responsible for the majority of methane emissions from two major sources -- liquid unloadings and pneumatic controller equipment -- at natural gas production sites.
With natural gas production in the United States expected to continue to increase during the next few decades, there is a need for a better understanding of methane emissions during natural gas production. The study team ...
2014-12-10
An interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons from the University of Rochester has used a new imaging technique to show how the human brain heals itself in just a few weeks following surgical removal of a brain tumor.
In a study featured on the cover of the current issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, the team found that recovery of vision in patients with pituitary tumors is predicted by the integrity of myelin--the insulation that wraps around connections between neurons--in the optic nerves.
"Before the study, we weren't able to ...
2014-12-10
Researchers have long debated how and what our ancestors ate. Charles Darwin hypothesized that the hunting of game animals was a defining feature of early hominids, one that was linked with both upright walking and advanced tool use and that isolated these species from their closest relatives (such as ancestors of chimpanzees); modified versions of this hypothesis exist to this day. Other scholars insist that while our ancestors' diets did include meat, it was predominantly scavenged and not hunted. Still others argue that particular plant foods such as roots and tubers ...
2014-12-10
NEW YORK, NY (December 10, 2014)--Columbia University Medical Center researchers have devised a way to replace the knee's protective lining, called the meniscus, using a personalized 3D-printed implant, or scaffold, infused with human growth factors that prompt the body to regenerate the lining on its own. The therapy, successfully tested in sheep, could provide the first effective and long-lasting repair of damaged menisci, which occur in millions of Americans each year and can lead to debilitating arthritis. The paper was published today in the online edition of Science ...
2014-12-10
A 13-year decline in vegetation in the eastern and southeastern Amazon has been linked to a decade-long rainfall decline in the region, a new NASA-funded study finds.
With global climate models projecting further drying over the Amazon in the future, the potential loss of vegetation and the associated loss of carbon storage may speed up global climate change.
The study was based on a new way to measure the "greenness" of plants and trees using satellites. While one NASA satellite measured up to 25 percent decline in rainfall across two thirds of the Amazon from 2000 ...
2014-12-10
NOAA and its partners today released three-dimensional sonar maps and images of an immigrant steamship lost more than 100 years ago in what many consider the worst maritime disaster in San Francisco history.
On Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck jagged rocks near the present site of the Golden Gate Bridge and sank almost immediately, killing 128 of the 210 passengers and crew aboard the ship.
Fishermen in the area, hearing the ship's distress calls, helped rescue 82 survivors, many plucked from makeshift rafts and floating wreckage. ...
2014-12-10
Athens, Ga. - The amount of weight a woman gains during pregnancy can be vitally important--especially if she's carrying a boy--according to a study by researchers at the University of Georgia released today in PLOS ONE, an open access peer-reviewed journal published by the Public Library of Science.
Research by associate professor Kristen Navara in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences found that male fetuses are more likely to die if their mothers don't gain enough weight during pregnancy.
"Fetuses are differentially susceptible to inadequate weight ...
2014-12-10
Everything you know about crowdfunding is wrong, at least according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara. And that, they add, is good news for scientists. Crowdfunding is the practice of financing a project or venture through contributions from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.
"There's this myth about how crowdfunding is supposed to work," said Jarrett Byrnes, a former postdoctoral associate at UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). "The myth is that going viral is the only way to have a successful crowdfunding campaign. ...
2014-12-10
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found that drinking alcohol to fall asleep interferes with sleep homeostasis, the body's sleep-regulating mechanism.
Alcohol is known to be a powerful somnogen, or sleep inducer, and approximately 20 percent of the U.S. adult population drinks alcohol to help fall asleep. The researchers, led by Mahesh Thakkar, Ph.D., associate professor and director of research in the MU School of Medicine's Department of Neurology, have studied alcohol's effects on sleep for more than five years. They ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Islet cell transplantation after pancreas removal may help preserve normal blood sugar
