Gene delivery to pancreatic islets for effective transplantation in diabetic animal

Abstract

Pancreas islet transplantation is a promising approach to cure diabetes mellitus. However, transplanted islets are easily damaged by hypoxic microenvironment and immunosuppressive agents. Cytoprotective gene delivery into islets could overcome those challenges by expressing the transferred therapeutic genes. In this circumstance, several factors need to be considered for genetic modification of pancreas islets. First, safe and efficient gene delivery tools should be developed. Second, effective therapeutic genes with few side-effects should be developed. Furthermore, strong gene regulation and expression systems are required. Therefore, we here review various gene-carriers and therapeutic genes for genetic engineering of pancreatic islets ex vivo.