Effect of diet on islet cell transplantation.

Transplantation of adequate numbers of islets can normalize the clinical parameters during normal chow feeding and modified diets of cholesterol, carbohydrate and protein. The transplantation of 3,000 fresh islets gives a clinical response that is the same as the normal controls. Animals transplanted with insufficient number of islets are unable to tolerate dietary stress, which eventually exhausts the beta cells, so that insufficient insulin is secreted to normalize the transplanted animals. Diabetic animals are unable to tolerate diet modification with many of the animals dying during or shortly after the diet's modification.