Almost 25 years ago following reports of successful shortterm culture of the human fetal pancreas, it was suggested that fetal pancreatic cells could be used as a cell-based insulin delivery system in insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) [1]. Several trials using fetal pancreatic explants in transplantation procedures to patients with IDDM were undertaken mostly in Eastern European countries and China (reviewed in [2]). However, the results of those trials could not be analyzed because the information reported was insufficient to draw valid conclusions. Limited clinical trials in Australia [3] and the U.S. [2] indicated that the tissue was antigenic and that it could survive after transplantation under the kidney capsule in immunosuppressed patients who had received a kidney transplant.

Keywords: human fetal pancreatic tissue, proliferation, differentiation, Transplantation