Experimental and clinical therapy of diabetes by transplantation.

Prevention, delay, or reversal of the microvascular complications of diabetes is the ultimate goal of pancreatic islet cell transplantation. Advances in surgical techniques and in islet isolation procedures have made the achievement of this goal a practical possibility. Microvascular lesions have indeed been prevented and even reversed in successful islet cell transplantation experiments in rats. Successful application of pancreatic islet cell transplantation in the human now awaits the development of effective suppression of rejection.