A press release was issued regarding Professor Masashi Goto, who conducted a project “Establishment of Minimally Invasive Cell Therapy for Diabetes by Introducing Interdisciplinary Approach” until fiscal 2015 in NICHe.
As an advanced treatment for diabetes, there is a method of transplanting islets that secrete insulin, a blood sugar regulating hormone, into patients. However, the side effects of current standard immunosuppressants remain an urgent issue that needs to be resolved.
A research group led by Professor Masashi Goto and Dr. Ibrahim Fathi (School of Medicine) has successfully identified an immunosuppressant with minimal side effects that is ideal for islet transplantation in the treatment of diabetes. This immunosuppressant (KRP-203) has a completely different mechanism of action from conventional immunosuppressants and does not cause side effects such as impaired glucose tolerance or inhibition of neovascularization in transplanted islets, thereby enabling safer islet transplantation. This research finding is expected to significantly contribute to diabetes treatment through islet transplantation in the future.
Furthermore, it is anticipated that this approach may also be applied to other cell transplantation therapies, such as liver cell transplantation for liver failure, in the future.
The results were published in Transplantation on July 8, 2021.
Related materials
Tohoku University press release page (Japanese) (click here)
Tohoku University hospital press release page (Japanese) (click here)