Prof. Wei Wang’s group have successfully used pigs islets in transplant operations on three type-1 diabetes patients, a significant achievement in the treatment of the disease, it was announced on 15th April 2016.

Changsha is called as "xenotransplantation city" by the international medical community. This reputation is due to a man and his team whose research have been continuously for 20 years and got outstanding achievements. Professor Wang Wei is the director of the Institute for Cell Transplantation and Gene Therapy of the Third Xiangya Hospital, and the chief expert of islets transplantation in the treatment of type 1 diabetes clinical research.

The three operations occurred between July 2013 and February 2016 at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Hunan Province. One patients use of insulin has been reduced by 80.5 percent, while for the other two it was reduced by 57 percent and 56 percent. The results were quite close to the effect of allogeneic islet transplantation, which confirmed the biological safety of the pig heterogeneous islet transplantation. Prof. Zhaohui Mo, an endocrinologist professor from the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, said, "This study has very great significance. It meant that blood glucose could be stable and ensured the patients nutrition. It also reduced the occurrence of complications as long as the diabetes injected a little insulin. The life quality of the patients with type 1 diabetes has been improved greatly. "

Professor Wang said, “To achieve these results we have overcome three hurdles”. The first hurdle was the biological safety. In order to ensure the absolute safety of xenotransplantation, WHO have made strict rules to the bio-safety of donor pig. The first Asian Designated Pathogen Free Donor Facility has been established by the Third Xiangya Hospital and Hunan XENO Biological Technology Co., Ltd, which fully cultivated high-quality donor pigs and guaranteed the safety. It was also the worlds second donor pigs breeding center. The first DPF donor center has been built by the University of Minnesota and the Spring Point Company.

The second hurdle was the immune rejection in the process of transplantation. The transplant program was conducted in partnership with researchers from University of Sydney, Australia. The worlds most advanced technology of inducing immune tolerance has been used for the transplantation which can reduce the rejection of graft. Its core technology is regulatory T cells which could not only protect the patients immune system from other pathogenic microorganisms, but also decrease the dose of immunosuppressants greatly. Thus it would reduce the side effects of immunosuppressants and improve the outcome of transplantation.

The third hurdle was the innovation of transplant methods, which made operation safer and more effective. The islets was transplanted by transplanted through transjugular intrahepatic catheterization infusion, and low dose heparin was continuously given at the same time to prevent the damage of islet graft by the immediately blood mediated inflammatory reaction.

On 15th April, according to a metaphase review of the program, organized by the health authorities of Hunan province, the results were reliable and clinical islet xenotransplantation outcome have reached the international advanced level. Meanwhile, xeno islet transplantation for type 2 diabetes could be considered to the next clinical study. We firmly believe the research is expected to help solve the shortage of organs for transplants and xenotransplantation for diabetes are just around the corner.