Summary. The endocrine function of pancreaticoduodenal allografts was studied in six dogs and compared with that of normal animals. The grafts were able %o prevent the diabetic ketosis that was observed in a control group after total pancreatectomy without following transplantation. --Systemic hyperglycaemia enhanced the insulin release from the transplanted pancreas, as measured by increased IRI levels after intravenous glucose administration. In contrast, the stimulation of insulin secretion by oral glucose loading was less than in norreal dogs, while the glucose assimilation was also increased in transplanted animals. --It was speculated that the duodenum might be more susceptible to immunological damage than the pancreas, and that consequently an impairment of the resorption of glucose and of the production of intestinal factors controlling the secretion of insulin may result. --In the near future, pancreatico-duodenal transplantation does not appears to become a therapeutical alternative to the conventional treatment of diabetes mellitus in man.
IntroductionThe endocrine function of the transplanted pancreas has been repeatedly studied since 1892 when Minkowski used the technique of pedicle transplantation of a pancreatic lobe, by which he demonstrated the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes mellitus [2,4,6,9,17,19,20,21]. An orthotopie pancreatieo-dupdenal transplantation permitting a normal exocrine as well as endocrine function of the graft was used for ~he first time by Largiad~r et al. [12,13, 14]. The transplantation en bloc of the functionally-connected pancreatico-duodenal complex is a technique that may eventually advance to a therapeutical procedure in the surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis, carcinoma of the pancreas and maybe also diabetes mellitus. In view of this last possibility we were prompted to study the endocrine function of these grafts. Since the dogs survived the operation for approximately three weeks, the experiments were not carried out in the immediate postoperative period when the animals did not yet feed normally and when carbohydrate metabolism was still disturbed.The response of the graft to systemic hyperglycaemia was tested by intravenous glucose administration, and the function of the glucose-responsive "enteroinsular axis" [18] was investigated by oral glucose tolerance tests. Some of the results have previously been published in preliminary form [7].