166-OR: Coinfusion of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improves Human Islet Survival in the Hepatic Islet Transplantation Mouse Model

Islet survival is improved when islets are co-transplanted with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) under the kidney capsule. We assessed whether co-infusion of MSCs with human islets into the liver, as performed in patients, would protect those islets from death post-transplantation (PT) in streptozotocin-induced diabetic NOD-SCID mice (blood glucose, BG >350mg/dl). Blood glucose levels were measured as surrogate markers for islet survival and function. Transplantation of a suboptimal islet number led to normoglycemia (BG Disclosure W. Gou: None. C. Strange: None. H. Wang: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (1R01DK105183, DK120394, DK118529); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (I01BX004536)