Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Islet Cell Transplantation
Islets are groups of cells in your pancreas. The pancreas is a gland behind your stomach. It makes hormones that control your blood glucose, also called blood sugar.
Islets are made up of several types of cells. One type is beta cells. Beta cells make a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps your cells take in glucose and keeps your blood glucose at a healthy level.
In type 1 diabetes, your immune system attacks and destroys beta cells. This means your pancreas can no longer make insulin. Without insulin, blood glucose rises to dangerous levels. You must take insulin every day to stay alive.
Islet cell transplantation uses healthy islets from a donor to replace the destroyed cells in a person with type 1 diabetes. The transplanted beta cells may begin making insulin. This could reduce or eliminate the need for daily insulin shots.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved islet cell transplantation in 2023. Before that, it was only available in research studies. Islet cell transplantation is not the same as a full pancreas transplant.
Healthy beta cells are moved from the pancreas of a person who has died and agreed to donate their organs. The islets are then injected into a large vein in your abdomen (belly) that leads to your liver. Once there, these islets begin to make and release insulin. More than one treatment may be needed to get enough working beta cells.
Islet cell transplantation is approved only for certain adults with type 1 diabetes whose blood glucose is very hard to control, even with careful daily management.
If you qualify, it may help with:
- Better blood glucose control
- Less need for daily insulin shots or no longer needing them
- Better ability to feel warning signs of low blood glucose
- Better quality of life
Talk with your health care provider about whether this treatment is right for you. They will review the benefits and risks.
One risk is that you must take medicines called immunosuppressants for the rest of your life. These medicines stop your immune system from attacking the new cells. But they also weaken your immune system, which raises your risk of infections and other serious side effects.
Not everyone with type 1 diabetes is a good fit for this treatment. If you have certain health conditions, a weakened immune system or take certain medicines, this treatment may not be a good fit for you.
It sits within Digestive System, Endocrine System and Transplantation and Donation.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Islet Cell Transplantation
163 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- SGLT2i Therapy in Islet Transplantation (SIT)University of Minnesota
- Breakthrough - T1DM and Chronic Kidney DiseaseUniversity of Chicago
- ENCRT-103-hPI: Evaluation of an Immune-protected ENCRT-103-hPI Containing Primary Human Islets in Adults With Type 1 Diabetes, With and Without Standard-of-care Portal Vein Islet Infusion.Encellin
- Efficacy of Islet Re-transplantation After Failure of Beta-cell ReplacementUniversity Hospital, Montpellier
- Islet Transplantation With Recipient T-Reg Cells or Deceased Donor Vertebral Bone Marrow TherapyStanford University
- Evaluation of the Efficacy of Intramuscular Islet Autograft After Extensive PancreatectomyUniversity Hospital, Lille
Research already completed
- A Phase 3 Single Center Study of Islet Transplantation in Non-uremic Diabetic PatientsNorthwestern University
- Kidney Alone Versus Islet-After-Kidney in Type 1 Diabetic Kidney Transplant Recipient.University Hospital, Lille
- Adrenergic System in Islet TransplantationUniversity of Pennsylvania
- Islet After Kidney Transplantation (IAK) in Patients With Type 1 DiabetesCity of Hope Medical Center
- Pancreatic Islets and Parathyroid Gland Co-transplantation for Treatment of Type 1 DiabetesPeter Stock
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Learn More
- Deceased Donor Islet Cell Transplantation 101Breakthrough T1D
- Pancreatic Islet TransplantationNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- Questions and Answers for Transplant Candidates about Pancreas, Pancreas-Kidney, and Islet AllocationHealth Resources and Services Administration
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Islet TransplantationNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Islets of Langerhans Transplantation. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Islet Cell Transplantation, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.