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Updated: Aug 21, 2026
Transplantation of Pancreatic Islets Into the Kidney Capsule of Diabetic Mice
Published on: October 31, 2007
Donor-specific tolerance induced by simultaneous allogeneic islet transplantation with CD4+CD25+ T-cells into hepatic
Tetsuya Ikemoto1, Seiki Tashiro, Koji Yasutomo
1Department of Digestive and Pediatric Surgery, The University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Tokushima, Japan.
Background:
The allogeneic islets transplantation is an ideal therapeutic strategy for patients with diabetes mellitus. However, it has been difficult to induce immunological tolerance against islets grafts. The CD4+CD25+ regulatory T-cells (Treg) play a role in suppressing T-cell activation. Thus, we evaluated whether Treg can regulate donor-specific T-cell tolerance that received allogeneic islets into the hepatic parenchyma (ITxHP) along with Treg.
Methods:
C3H/He mice were used as donors; and streptozotocin-induced diabetic BALB/c mice were recipients. The protocol included three groups: Group A recipients received only 300 IE islets; Group B was given 300 IE islets and whole splenocytes; Group C was given 300 IE islets and Treg purified from peripheral lymph nodes.
Results:
For all mice in Groups A and B, the fasting blood sugar exceeded 250mg/dl and graft rejection was observed. GVHD was observed earlier in Group B than in Group A. In contrast graft survival exceeded 30 days for two mice in Group C (50%, mean POD 28.5 +/- 24.0, P<0.05). Mixed lymphocyte reaction showed that T-cells from tolerant mice had very weak responses against spleen cells from C3H mice.
Conclusions:
The simultaneous ITxHP with CD4+CD25+ T-cells administration prolonged islet graft survivals and induced donor-specific hyporesponsiveness.
