Annals of surgery
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Hyperglycemia, hypoinsulinemia and ketonemia often develop abruptly in previously normal young "BB" rats. The syndrome mimics human juvenile diabetes closely and is, thus, appropriate for assessing pancreatic transplantation. Transplantation of islet cells from closely histocompatible Wistar Furth (WF) donor resulted in permanent normoglycemia when immunosuppression with ALS was given. ⋯ Accordingly, 50 million bone marrow cells from WF donors were inoculated into half the newborn members of "BB" litters, leaving the littermates as unmodified controls. Most bone marrow recipients were protected, only four of 37 (10.8%) ever becoming diabetic, while the incidence of diabetes in noninoculated littermates was 22 of 39 (56.4%). The ultimate goal in human diabetes, which also seems very likely to be an autoimmune disease, may not be replacement of destroyed islet cells but identification of potentially susceptible children and prevention of islet destruction by immunologic manipulation.