Current opinions on genetic-modifed porcine islets in islet xenotransplantation

Islet transplantation is considered as a prospective treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, the shortage of available islet grafts greatly restricts the further application of clinical islet transplantation. Therefore, more researchers have paif attention to the investigation on xenogeneic islet transplantation. For xenotransplantation the pig is promising candidate, immune rejection is more violent than allotransplantation, and the common immunosuppressive strategy cannot meet the needs of xenotransplantation. In recent years, great progress in gene modification technology has promoted the development of modified porcine islet in xenotransplantation and achieved remarkable results. In this paper, we reviewed the progress of research on improving the long-term survival and maintaining function of donor porcine islets in xenotransplantation through gene modification. Key words: Gene modification; Islet xenotransplantation; Immune rejection