Successful Preclinical Islet Transplantation in the Subcutaneous Space for Type 1 Diabetes

The intrahepatic milieu is inhospitable to intraportal islet allografts, limiting their applicability to ameliorate Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Islet viability in the subcutaneous space represents an unfulfilled paradigm that is crucial to ensure widespread adoption and safety of clinical islet transplantation. Herein we report that human islets transplanted subcutaneously uniformly promote long-term euglycemia when admixed with a device-free Islet Viability Matrix (IVM), through a previously unknown anti-apoptotic mechanism. Human islets transplanted into mouse; 10 samples were used in this analysis. 5 samples were treated with collagen and no collagen for the studied time points .