A new mouse model for intraportal islet transplantation with limited hepatic lobe as a graft site

Intraportal site is the standard for grafting in clinical islet transplantation. In the mouse model, the whole liver has been used as the grafting site to mimic clinical islet transplantation. However, this model lacks the potency to directly assess the contribution of the islet graft to diabetes control. Only demonstrating the immediate recurrence of diabetes in a surviving recipient after the removal of the islet graft can validate this assessment. In this study, we develop a mouse model of intraportal islet transplantation equipped with the potency of this assessment by injecting islets selectively into the right hepatic lobe under temporal clamp of the left portal vein. The mouse of this model survives after the right hepatectomy by which the islet graft is removed. This model can be applied to investigate both the specific graft-recipient interaction in the liver and the islet graft contribution to the control of diabetes.