Leading-Edge Treatment 

OSU Medical Center's Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC) is home to some of the most advanced cellular transplant research and treatment techniques in the nation.

Exciting New Therapies
OSU’s Bone Marrow Transplant labs specialize in isolation of particular cells, aiding several OSU CTC programs in creating exciting new therapies for a range of diseases.

Islet Transplant Program
The Comprehensive Transplant Center’s newly developed Islet Transplant program is currently working with the Federal Drug Administration toward clinical trials of a method to transplant pancreatic islet cells in patients suffering from Type I Diabetes.

Type I diabetes, which generally develops in childhood, can cause blindness, heart attacks, coma, kidney failure and loss of limbs because the individual’s pancreas is unable to secrete insulin to control glucose levels in blood. The ultimate treatment for these patients is a solid organ transplant to replace the pancreas, however, there is a shortage of available organs and the surgical procedure can be risky.

The Islet Transplant program takes clusters of cells called islets from a donor pancreas and transfers them into the liver of another person. Once implanted, the beta cells in the islet begin to make and release insulin. This procedure could mean patients with type I diabetes could live without daily insulin shots.

Immunosuppressant Medications
The Blood and Marrow Transplant program is also receiving the benefit of cross-discipline research. BMT researchers have found that several immunosuppressant medications that prevent graft rejection in solid organ transplants may play beneficial roles in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma.