Whole organ transplantation and glucose regulation.

Pancreas transplantation has gained clinical acceptance since its initial application more than 30 years ago. A constellation of surgical, pharmacologic, and metabolic alterations occur with transplantation, particularly if pancreatic transplantation is performed in addition to renal transplantation in a uremic diabetic. Increasingly sophisticated studies have allowed analysis of the performance of the transplanted organ and have enhanced our basic understanding of insulin's complex interplay in peripheral glucoregulatory processes.