RETROSPECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF ISLET CELL AUTOANTIBODIES IN PANCREAS ORGAN DONORS
- Stavros Diamantopoulos, MD1,2,
- Gloria Allende, MS1,
- Joseph M. Ferreira, BS3,
- Gaetano Ciancio, MD4,
- George W. Burke, MD1,4 and
- Alberto Pugliese, MD (apuglies{at}med.miami.edu)1,5,6
- 1Diabetes Research Institute
- 2Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology
- 3Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency
- 4Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation
- 5Department of Medicine and
- 6Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
Abstract
Objective: 3-4% of deceased pancreas donors may have autoantibodies (AAb) to pancreatic isletcell antigens, which are well-established markers of type 1 diabetes (T1D). We investigated whether donor AAb positivity could affect the outcome of pancreas transplantation.
Research Design and Methods: We retrospectively tested AAb in 135 donors whose pancreata and kidneys were transplanted in T1D patients. We measured AAb to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD-AAb), the tyrosine-phosphatase-like protein IA2 (IA2-AAb) and insulin (insulin-AAb). We then evaluated pancreas transplant outcome data.
Results: 4/135 (2.96%) donors were AAb positive: 3 donors had GAD-AAb and 1 donor had insulin-AAb. Their respective recipients became insulin-independent on follow-up. Three of the 4 recipients have normal, insulin-producing grafts 3-5.8 years after transplant. The recipient of the insulin-AAb positive donor developed chronic rejection following discontinuation of immunosuppression 3.3 years after transplant.
Conclusions: Single AAb positivity did not affect the outcome of pancreas transplantation in our study.
Footnotes
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- Received April 3, 2008.
- Accepted June 4, 2008.
- Copyright © American Diabetes Association
