First Islet Cell Transplantation

 

                                                        Organs That Can Be Transplanted 

                                             

                                                                            Pancreas 

                                                             University Of Minnesota

In 1974 David Sutherland, a surgical resident at the University of Minnesota, began the world’s first clinical transplants of the pancreatic insulin-producing groups of cells known as islets of Langerhans.

 In 1979, as an assistant professor of surgery, he performed the first living-donor partial pancreas transplant.

 The next year, he, John Najarian, and colleagues demonstrated that the full-blown diabetes that followed pancreatectomy (to cure chronic pancreatitis) could sometimes be prevented or partially ameliorated by isolating islets from the removed organ and infusing them back into the patients. Sutherland went on to oversee thousands of pancreas transplants and islet autotransplants at the University of Minnesota, where he headed the world’s oldest and largest pancreas transplant program.

                                            Islet Transplantation:  University Of Minnesota

                                                                   Islet Cell Transplant 

Evolution Of Islet Cell Transplant 

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