In Vivo Bioluminescence for the Detection of the Fate of Pancreatic Islet Organoids Post-transplantation

Pancreatic islet transplantation is a promising cell replacement treatment for patients afflicted with type 1 diabetes (T1D), which is an autoimmune disease resulting in the destruction of insulin-producing islet β-cells. However, the shortage of donor pancreatic islets significantly hampers the widespread application of this strategy as routine therapy. Pluripotent stem cell-derived insulin-producing islet organoids constitute a promising alternative β-cell source for T1D patients. Early after transplantation, it is critical to know the fate of transplanted islet organoids, but determining their survival remains a significant technical challenge. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is an optical molecular imaging technique that detects the survival of living cells using light emitted from luciferase-expressing bioreporter cells. Through BLI, the post-transplantation fate of islet organoids can be evaluated over time in a noninvasive fashion with minimal intervention, thus making BLI an ideal tool to determine the success of the transplant and improving cell replacement therapy approaches for T1D.