Background: Assuming that ileal stimulation by food may increase incretin secretion, we aimed to investigate whether ileal interposition obtains adequate pancreatic islet viability and function after intramuscular islet transplantation in diabetic rats.
Methods: We investigated four groups of eight Wistar rats: ileal interposition + islet transplantation, islet transplantation, ileal interposition, and diabetic control. All rats were subjected to streptozotocin-induced diabetes. We used the C-peptide/glucose ratio and islet image to investigate beta cell mass, and plasma glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) measure.
Results: Ileal interposition was effective in preserving function and increasing islet mass in animals with islets transplanted into alginate microcapsules. The plasma GLP-1 level in the diabetic control rats was a basal concentration (4.1 ± 1.2 pM). GLP-1 level after ileal interposition + islet transplantation (12.3 ± 3.3 pM) was significantly higher (p < .05) than in the islet transplantation group (8.2 ± 2.4 pM) and ileal interposition group rats (7.6 ± 1.8 pM).
Conclusions: Ileal interposition positively influenced beta cell viability after intramuscular transplantation of pancreatic islets in diabetic rats.
Keywords: C-peptide; beta cell mass; diabetes; ileal interposition; islet transplantation; rat.