FIG. 1.

Transplantation of a large number of donor islets was needed to reverse diabetes in immunosuppressant-treated late-stage diabetic NOD mice. Late-stage diabetic NOD mice were transplanted with 1,000 or 600 islets from FVB/N mice into the liver (A) or the pancreas (B) after the mice were given immunosuppressant therapy. The recipients were monitored twice weekly for blood glucose for 30 days after transplantation. For recipients with 600 donor islets in the liver or 1,000 donor islets in the pancreas, exogenous insulin was used to ensure the survival of the recipients after transplantation. If a recipient's blood glucose was >500 mg/dl, the mouse was injected with insulin (1 unit daily) for the subsequent 5 days, and injections were stopped 2 days before blood glucose measuring. There were 6 recipients in each group.