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: islet xenotransplantation; islet-kidney; tolerance; xenogeneic immune response; xenotransplantation.
Copyright © 2024 Eisenson, Iwase, Chen, Hisadome, Cui, Santillan, Schulick, Gu, Maxwell, Koenig, Sun, Warren and Yamada.