Pancreatic islet autotransplantation: results in dogs with chronic duct ligation.

The influence of pancreatic acinar cell atrophy and fibrosis on islet tissue autotransplantation was studied in dogs. Thirty-nine dogs underwent pancreatic duct ligation. After 6 weeks marked acinar cell atrophy and fibrosis developed, similar to that in human chronic pancreatitis. Intravenous glucose tolerance testing revealed only a minor decrease in K value (percent/min decline in plasma glucose) from 2.9 +/- 0.2 to 2.4 +/- 0.1 during the 6 weeks. In a control group of normal dogs, 23 of 26 transplants were successful. In a group of 12 duct-ligated dogs, only 1 of 12 transplants was successful with identical techniques (p less than 0.001). Variations in technique to increase or decrease tissue dispersal did not improve the results in other groups (two successes in 27 dogs). New techniques are required if pancreatic islet transplantation is to be consistently effective in the presence of chronic inflammatory disease of the pancreas.