[New developments in the field of insulin preparations, apparative insulin administration and transplantation of endocrine pancreatic tissue (author's transl)].

Newly developed insulin analogues like desphe-insulin, as well as--biosynthetically or semisynthetically produced--human insulin appear to offer some advantages, mainly from the immunologic point of view. The total correction of the metabolic defect in diabetics by the glucose-controlled "artificial pancreas" is possible only for some time because the glucose sensors available today do not function over longer periods. On the other hand, portable insulin infusion pumps (working without continuous measurement of blood glucose) have already been broadly used and also implanted in diabetic patients. Immune rejection is the main problem in transplantation of islet tissue, requiring a permanent immunosuppression. Islet transplantation was almost without any success in diabetics whereas pancreas segment transplantation resulted in a full, persisting endocrine function of the graft in some of the cases.