Frontiers in Immunology (Feb 2024)

Combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation for diabetic nephropathy: an update in ongoing research for a clinically relevant application of porcine islet transplantation

  • Daniel L. Eisenson,
  • Hayato Iwase,
  • Weili Chen,
  • Yu Hisadome,
  • Wanxing Cui,
  • Michelle R. Santillan,
  • Alexander C. Schulick,
  • Du Gu,
  • Amanda Maxwell,
  • Kristy Koenig,
  • Zhaoli Sun,
  • Daniel Warren,
  • Kazuhiko Yamada

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1351717
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

Read online

Combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy represents a compelling and increasingly relevant therapeutic possibility for an ever-growing number of patients who would benefit from both durable renal replacement and cure of the underlying cause of their renal insufficiency: diabetes. Here we briefly review immune barriers to islet transplantation, highlight preclinical progress in the field, and summarize our experience with combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation, including both challenges with islet-kidney composite grafts as well as our recent success with sequential kidney followed by islet xenotransplantation in a pig-to-baboon model.

Keywords