Abstract
For patients with type 1 diabetes who suffer from recurrent life-threatening hypoglycaemia despite optimization of intensive insulin therapy, islet cell transplantation is the best therapeutic option. However, there are not enough human donors to meet demand. Therefore, research into the use of animal pancreatic islets for xenotransplantation has been ongoing for decades, and pigs have emerged as the donor organism of choice. Clinical studies have already been carried out with encapsulated porcine islets, in which no safety risks have been identified, but the efficacy with regard to diabetes therapy was limited. Through innovative encapsulation strategies, the development of clinically applicable immunosuppressive protocols and the genetic modification of donor pigs, great progress has been made in recent years in the efficacy of xenogeneic islet cell transplantation in diabetic non-human primate models. These new developments make clinical trials look very promising in the coming years.
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