NON IMMUNOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF DIABETES BY XENOTRANSPLANTATION [ 2003 - 2005 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Prof Wayne Hawthorne (Principal investigator) ,  Dr Christopher Moran ,  Prof Jeremy Chapman ,  Prof Philip O'Connell ,  Prof Richard Allen

Brief description Tragically patients whom suffer from diabetes mellitus develop major secondary complications such as renal failure, even with today's tight glucose control. Insulin injections minimise diabetic complications but restricts lifestyle and an alternative, pancreatic islet cell transplantation, is limited by donor shortage. With genetic technology, pig donor tissue is a feasible donor source. This project will use an inbred pig colony to assess long term pig fetal and neonatal islet cell function in combination with a kidney graft in the absence of an immune response. Using this specifically inbred pig colony we will carefully catalogue the type, number and distribution of endogenous retroviruses within pig genes. Using new and novel techniques we will develop a new strategy by which we can block and overcome this major concern of xenotransplantation. Ultimately a unique Australian resource will be developed which may provide unlimited islets for safe, large-scale transplantation of diabetics before they develop debilitating secondary complications from their diabetes and provide an alternative to the only current method of curing endstage renal failure with a combined pancreas and kidney transplant.

Funding Amount $AUD 310,500.00

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant