Patient Information
Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which islets in the pancreas are permanently destroyed by the body's immune system. The immune system normally fights off infection, cancer and other foreign substances. Type 1 diabetes is an "auto immune" disease; the immune system attacks the body's own islets.
People with type 1 diabetes require several injections of insulin each day. They must follow a strict diet and monitor their blood glucose carefully in order to control the level of glucose in their blood. However, even the most diligent patients cannot completely control their blood sugar levels. Some patients experience "brittle diabetes", which is very difficult to control, in spite of very conscientious care.
People with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk for stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, amputation, blindness, nerve damage and premature death. These complications are a result of ongoing damage to small blood vessels and nerves caused by high blood sugar levels. Low blood sugar levels can cause confusion, unconsciousness and death. As diabetes progresses many diabetics lose the ability to recognize when their blood sugars are becoming dangerously low, which increases the risk of premature death.
More than 1 million Americans have type 1 diabetes. Every year about 30,000 people are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - 13,000 of these are children (that's 35 children a day). There are approximately 25,000 people in the state of Georgia who suffer from this disease.
Islet transplantation can restore insulin production by replacing the islets that have been destroyed. The stability of blood glucose levels can be greatly improved, reducing immediate risks from low blood glucose levels and possible reducing long term complications caused by high or low glucose levels.
Islets for transplantation come from the pancreas of an organ donor. In islet transplantation, the islets are infused through a catheter into a blood vessel that leads to the liver. The islets lodge in the small vessels of the liver. From their new home the islets are able to detect the level of glucose in the blood and produce the correct amount of insulin.
The pancreas is an organ that is 6-10 inches long and lies behind the stomach. Islets are found in small clusters of cells, about the size of a grain of salt, that are located in the pancreas. There are one to one and one-half million clusters of islets in a healthy human pancreas. In each islet cluster there are a few thousand cells. The function of islets is to make insulin.
Glucose is the basic form of fuel used by cells in the human body. Insulin allows glucose from the bloodstream to enter cells. Without insulin, cells do not have fuel for energy and the cells starve. However, as the cells starve, the level of glucose in the blood stream rises to dangerous and destructive levels.
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