Pancreatic islet and stem cell transplantation in diabetes mellitus: results and perspectives.

Long-term studies strongly suggest that tight control of blood glucose achieved by conventional intensive insulin treatment, self-blood glucose monitoring and patient education can significantly prevent the development and retard the progression of chronic complications of type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, the expense for this benefit was a threefold increase of the number of severe hypoglycemic episodes, a significant increase of the body weight, and dietary and other life-style restrictions affecting the quality of life