Type 1 Diabetes Recurrence in Pancreas Transplants

Description

To identify the factors associated with recurrence of diabetes in subjects who received a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) or pancreas transplant. The study will see if there are changes in the participant’s blood that will help the investigator know whether diabetes has returned after the transplant.

SPK patients will be retrospectively analyzed to determine frequency, levels and time course of autoantibody recurrence and predictive value of autoantibodies for recurrence of the disease.

This study will prospectively follow our existing and our new pancreas transplant recipients to monitor autoantibody levels, monitor and phenotype autoreactive T cells in peripheral blood. This will happen monthly for 24 months.

This study will assess the presence or absence of insulitis in the transplanted pancreas from biopsies performed in recipients with consistent recurrence of multiple autoantibodies.

It will also monitor and phenotype autoreactive T cells from the pancreatic infiltrate obtained by pancreatic transplant biopsies.