Why aren transplanted beta cells destroyed–as the recipients own beta cells were–by the mechanisms that led to the patients diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. For reasons not yet fully understood, the body’s immune system kills its own beta cells. The beta cells infused by islet transplantation are not one’s own, so the immune system does not respond to them in the same way. The ordinary rejection mechanism of the immune system does need to be controlled after islet transplantation, and therapy is given to block recurrence of type 1 diabetes.
