Metabolic effects of a corticosteroid-free immunosuppressive regimen in recipients of pancreatic transplant.

Background: A corticosteroid (CS)-free immunosuppressive regimen may be considered less diabetogenic than treatments including CSs principally after pancreas transplantation.

Methods: To test whether a CS-free immunosuppressive treatment is metabolically superior to a regimen including CSs, we prospectively studied 19 CS-free simultaneous pancreas and kidney (SPK) transplant recipients (body mass index=22+/-1 kg/m2; cyclosporine dose=400+/-19 mg/kg/day; azathioprine dose=77+/-8 mg/day; basal plasma C-peptide=1.3+/-0.