Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Islet transplantation is an NHS-funded procedure introduced to the UK in 2011 for patients with the most severe type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). These particular patients have unstable blood glucose, frequently occurring episodes of severe hypoglycaemia and impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia (IAH).Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of islet transplantation in improving glycaemic control, reducing the burden of hypoglycaemia and improv...

Introduction: Islet transplantation (ITx) is a therapeutic option for patients with Type 1 diabetes. However there is attrition of graft function and the majority of patients require exogenous insulin injections and/or further transplants, within five years. Mouse models help elucidate mechanisms of islet graft failure and the NOD/Lt-scid IL2rγnull (NSG) mouse is useful to study human islet engraftment but few published studies exist. As diffe...

The shortage of donor material has driven research towards finding a replenishable supply of islets for transplantation. We have previously shown that the exocrine material that results as a by-product of the islet isolation procedure can be transdifferentiated towards functional islet-like structures by overexpression of the pancreatic transcription factors (TFs) Pdx1, MafA, Ngn3 and Pax4 followed by culture in the presence of betacellulin, nicotinamide and exendin-4. These c...

Introduction: During gestation diminished maternal insulin sensitivity (IS) increases the availability of fuels allowing fetal growth. Very severe obesity (Class III obesity (OB), BMI≥40 kg/m2) is associated with reduced IS but it is 28 how nutrient availability differs and how this impacts on birth weight versus normal pregnancies (CON). Methods: 213 OB (median (interquartile range) 43.2(41.1–46.3) kg/m2) and 87 CON (BM...

Introduction: It is not known if non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) predates type 2 diabetes. We will study the prevalence of NAFLD in women with previous gestational diabetes (GDM), a population at ≥60% risk for the development of type 2 diabetes, while glucose tolerance is non-diabetic. It is not known if hepatic fat accumulation in NAFLD is disproportionate to fat accumulation in other tissues. We aim to study the association between fat in the liver and in tis...

Background: Islet transplant into the liver is a therapy for type 1 diabetes patients experiencing severe hypoglycaemia or impaired hypoglycaemic awareness. Widespread use is not currently considered due to the requirement for immunosuppression for the lifetime of the graft, and the attrition in graft function over the following 1-5 years. Following transplant into the liver, inflammation results in >60% islet loss, with few patients achieving insulin independence. The liv...

Background and Aims: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is characterised by autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta-cells resulting in insulin deficiency. Evaluation of novel therapies for T1DM requires reliable methods to measure beta-cell function, which is unattainable using traditional non-invasive imaging techniques. A new approach is manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI). As a calcium analogue, manganese is taken up into pancreatic beta-cells during insuli...