Glucose and insulin changes following a renoportal shunt in streptozotocin diabetic rats with pancreatic islet isografts under the kidney capsule.

The effect on glucose metabolism of altering the site of the venous drainage of an isograft of isolated adult islets implanted beneath the renal capsule, from the systemic circulation to the portal circulation was determined in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Reversal of diabetes was accomplished by the transplantation of 1000-1200 isolated islets beneath the left kidney capsule. The rate of fall of the glucose concentration (as expressed by the K value) was found to be significantly decreased in transplanted animals (1.7 +/- 0.5%/min; mean +/- SD) compared with normal animals (2.4 +/- 0.5%/min). Draining the left renal vein into the portal circulation restored the K value to that of normal animals (2.5 +/- 0.4%). However the fasting glucose concentration was significantly higher and the basal insulin levels lower in both normal and transplanted rats with a renoportal shunt.