Jiang H, Henley D, Jiang FX. Towards curing type 1 diabetes: Prospects and challenges of allogeneic or xenogeneic donor islet cell transplantation. World J Transplant 2025; 15(4): 101926 [DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.101926]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Fang-Xu Jiang, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia. fang-xu.jiang@perkins.uwa.edu.au
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Cell & Tissue Engineering
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Review
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dec 18, 2025 (publication date) through Nov 19, 2025
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World Journal of Transplantation
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2220-3230
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Jiang H, Henley D, Jiang FX. Towards curing type 1 diabetes: Prospects and challenges of allogeneic or xenogeneic donor islet cell transplantation. World J Transplant 2025; 15(4): 101926 [DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.101926]
World J Transplant. Dec 18, 2025; 15(4): 101926 Published online Dec 18, 2025. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.101926
Towards curing type 1 diabetes: Prospects and challenges of allogeneic or xenogeneic donor islet cell transplantation
Helen Jiang, David Henley, Fang-Xu Jiang
Helen Jiang, Department of Medicine, Northern Health, Melbourne 3076, Victoria, Australia
David Henley, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia
David Henley, Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia
Fang-Xu Jiang, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia
Author contributions: Jiang H, Henley D, and Jiang FX reviewed and edited this manuscript; Jiang H wrote the original draft; Jiang FX conceptualised this review; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fang-Xu Jiang, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia. fang-xu.jiang@perkins.uwa.edu.au
Received: October 1, 2024 Revised: February 28, 2025 Accepted: April 7, 2025 Published online: December 18, 2025 Processing time: 414 Days and 1.1 Hours
Abstract
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic, lifelong, autoimmune disease that is debilitating and life-threatening to those who suffer from severe hypoglycaemic events or the devastating chronic complications. Exogenous insulin replacement, including the artificial pancreas, is the current mainstay of T1D therapy but cannot prevent the chronic vascular complications of the disease. They are also responsible for contributing to severe iatrogenic hypoglycaemia and impaired hypoglycaemic awareness. β-cell replacement with either pancreas or islet allotransplantation can reverse diabetes leading to better glycaemic control, prevention of hypoglycaemic events and improved quality of life for patients. The limited supply of cadaveric organ donors is a major barrier to this therapeutic option. Thus, alternative sources of islets are being actively explored, mainly human pluripotent stem-cell derived islets and xenogeneic porcine islets. Although these sources harbor their own risks and problems, various novel and innovative solutions are being perseveringly investigated across the globe to overcome these in the hopes that safe islet transplantation may one day be available to all T1D patients suffering from severe hypoglycaemic events. This review will concentrate on pre-clinical and clinical studies, in addition to the latest scientific discoveries relevant to T1D transplantation therapy using allogeneic or xenogeneic donor islet cells.
Core Tip: Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong disease that is debilitating and life-threatening due to severe hypoglycaemic events or impaired hypoglycaemic awareness. β-cell replacement with either pancreas or islet allotransplantation can reverse diabetes leading to improved quality of life. The limited supply of cadaveric organ donors is a major barrier to this therapeutic option. Thus, alternative sources of islets are being explored, mainly human pluripotent stem-cell derived islets and xenogeneic porcine islets. This review will concentrate on pre-clinical and clinical studies, in addition to the latest scientific discoveries relevant to type 1 diabetes transplantation therapy using allogeneic or xenogeneic donor islet cells.
