Background: Limited data are available regarding the long-term metabolic outcomes of functioning pancreas transplants in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Methods: To compare the long-term effects of pancreas transplantation in terms of insulin resistance and β cell function, comparison of metabolic variables was performed between type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and T2DM patients from 1-month posttransplant to 5 years using generalized, linear-mixed models for repeated measures.
Results: Among 217 consecutive patients who underwent pancreas transplantation at our center between August 2004 and January 2015, 193 patients (151 T1DM and 42 T2DM) were included in this study. Throughout the follow-up period, postoperative hemoglobin A1c did not differ significantly between T1DM and T2DM patients, and the levels were constantly below 6% (42 mmol/mol) until 5 years posttransplant, whereas C-peptide was significantly higher in T2DM (P = 0.014). There was no difference in fasting insulin, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) of insulin resistance, HOMA β cell, or the insulinogenic index between the groups. Furthermore, fasting insulin and HOMA-insulin resistance steadily decreased in both groups during the follow-up period.
Conclusions: There was no significant difference in the insulin resistance or β-cell function after pancreas transplantation between T1DM and T2DM patients. We demonstrated that pancreas transplantation is capable of sustaining favorable endocrine functions for more than 5 years in T2DM recipients.