Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Transplantation of Pancreatic Islets Into the Kidney Capsule of Diabetic Mice
Published on: October 31, 2007
Anti-LFA-1 improves pig islet xenograft function in diabetic mice when long-term acceptance is induced by
Makiko Kumagai-Braesch1, Henrik Ekberg, Feng Wang
1Department of Transplantation Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
Background:
It has been previously demonstrated that addition of anti-LFA-1 to a combination of CTLA4Ig and anti-CD40L induces the permanent acceptance of dopaminergic fetal pig xenografts when transplanted into the brain of wild-type mice. The purpose of this study was to test whether this costimulation blockade also can induce acceptance of adult pig islets transplanted to C57BL/6 mice with streptozotocin-induced diabetes.
Methods:
Recipients were treated with CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L+/-anti-LFA-1 or isotype control antibodies during the first week after transplantation. Half of the costimulation blockade-treated recipients had their grafts removed after 8 weeks. The other half was observed up to 5 months.
Results:
Recipients treated with CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L/anti-LFA-1 had significantly lower blood glucose and gained more weight than CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L-treated recipients. CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L-treated recipients exhibited unstable blood glucose. IPGTT of these recipients revealed a slow recovery to normal blood glucose levels at week 4. In comparison, CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L/anti-LFA-1 treated recipients exhibited a significantly superior glucose clearance. CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L+/-anti-LFA-1 treated recipients did not produce anti-pig IgG, whereas control antibody-treated mice did. CD4+ T cells from costimulation blockade-treated recipients proliferated less than CD4+ T cells from control antibody-treated mice when co-cultured with syngeneic antigen presenting cells loaded with pig islet antigens.
Conclusions:
CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L/anti-LFA-1-treated recipients had superior islet function compared with CTLA4Ig/anti-CD40L-treated recipients. However, both costimulation blockade regimens led to islet graft acceptance up to 5 months after a 1-week treatment.
More Related Videos
11:31High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model
Published on: August 16, 2019
10:03Bioluminescent Monitoring of Graft Survival in an Adoptive Transfer Model of Autoimmune Diabetes in Mice
Published on: November 18, 2022