Physiological and pharmacological stimulation of pancreatic islet hormone secretion in type I diabetic pancreas allograft recipients.

Successful heterotopic and denervated pancreas allograft transplantation (PAT) often results in normoglycemia and peripheral hyperinsulinemia in insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic recipients. The contribution of altered hepatic insulin extraction (HIE) to the resulting hyperinsulinemia in such patients remains uncertain. Furthermore, whether the denervated pancreas allografts exhibit beta-cell hyperresponsiveness to physiological and pharmacological stimulation is controversial. We evaluated beta-cell function and HIE after successful whole cadaveric PAT with systemic venous drainage in 13 type I diabetic patients before and after mixed-meal and intravenous glucose and glucagon administration. The results were compared with those of 5 nondiabetic patients with kidney transplantation only, who had native innervated pancreases with portal insulin delivery and were receiving an equivalent triple immunosuppressive therapy (cyclosporin, azathioprine, and prednisone), and 7 healthy control subjects with no family history of diabetes. After PAT, fasting and poststimulation serum glucose concentrations were normalized. PAT was associated with marked basal hyperinsulinemia (3- to 8-fold) as assessed by immunoreactive insulin (IRI) levels in type I diabetic patients (mean +/- SE 345 +/- 43 pM) compared with control subjects (43 +/- 14 pM) and nondiabetic kidney-transplantation patients (129 +/- 38 pM). After mixed-meal ingestion, the mean incremental integrated insulin area was similar in PAT patients (18 +/- 3 nM.min) compared with kidney-transplantation patients (20 +/- 4 nM.min) and healthy control subjects (21 +/- 3 nM.min). Basal serum C-peptide levels were significantly greater in PAT (1.72 +/- 0.13 nM) and kidney-transplantation (2.15 +/- 0.33 nM) patients than in healthy control subjects (0.50 +/- 0.10 nM; P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)