Pancreas transplantation in the mouse.

BACKGROUND: Pancreas transplantation is the only established treatment to achieve long-term normoglycemia and insulin independence in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. However, many complications both during and post-transplantation have limited the progress of pancreas transplantation. Mice are the widely used laboratory animals that have been used to establish pancreas transplant models. The pathogenesis and the treatment of pancreas allograft rejection have been studied during the last twenty years. This review introduces four different mouse pancreas transplantation models established by different centers. DATA SOURCES: We reviewed the three mostly reported mouse pancreas transplantation models in the literature (PubMed), and compared them with a novel mouse model established at our center. RESULTS: In this review, four different models of mouse pancreas transplantation were compared in terms of surgical technique, immediate success rate, advantages and disadvantages. CONCLUSIONS: The mouse model is a useful tool to study pancreas transplantation-related diseases and their treatment. The findings from this model help to improve human pancreas transplantation in the future.