Since the early pioneering work of Ballinger and Reckard demonstrating that transplantation
of islets of Langerhans into diabetic rodents could normalize their blood glucose levels, islet
transplantation has been proposed to be a potential treatment for type 1 diabetes 1, 2. More
recently, advances in human islet transplantation have further strengthened this view 1, 3.
However, two major limitations prevent islet transplantation from being a widespread clinical
reality:(a) the requirement for large numbers of islets per patient, which severely reduces the …