Present status of islet transplantation

The initiation of clinical trials on islet transplantation as a possible therapeutic approach for human diabetes had been blocked by 2 major obstacles. The first was to develop methods that would prevent the rejection of islet transplants in animals without requiring continuous immunosuppression of the recipients. The second was to develop procedures which would permit the isolation of a sufficient number of intact, viable islets from a single human pancreas for transplantation into a diabetic patient. Significant advances have been made in overcoming both of these barriers. A brief review of these advances is presented.