Can we delay or even reverse diabetic complications by islet transplantation?

Treatment of diabetes is of crucial importance not only for glycemic control but also for the prevention of complications that causes irreversible damage to peripheral nerves, heart, kidney, and eyes. Despite a major effort to obtain prolonged metabolic control, diabetes complication can only be delayed in time. In a recent publication we investigated the effect of islet transplantation on diabetic complications in a rat model of streptozotocin-induced diabetes (1). We reported that islet transplantation induced an amelioration of impaired nociceptive threshold and normalization of nerve conduction velocity in diabetic rats. Cardiomyocyte loss was also reduced by islet transplantation and the observed mild kidney damage of diabetic rats was prevented. We concluded that transplantation of pancreatic islets, besides controlling glycemia, induced regression of neuropathy and prevented cardiovascular alterations, which was always there supporting the potential of islet transplantation. In this review we compare our recently published data with previous reports on prevention and regression of diabetic neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, and retinopathy with a particular attention to those on animal models of diabetes. In details, the potential of islet transplantation in inducing the regression of diabetic complications is discussed.