Engrafting Human Islets in Scid-Beige Mice

The immunodeficient scid-beige mice (Model#CBSCBG-M; C.B-Igh-1b/GbmsTac-Prkdc^scid-Lyst^bg N7) used as a recipient of human islet transplant were purchased from Taconic (Rensselaer, NY, United States), and were housed in a pathogen free facility before and after human islet transplantation. Islet transplantation was performed as described elsewhere (Pagliuca et al., 2014 (link)). 10–17 weeks old mice received 1,500–2,000 IEQ per mouse. 4–8 weeks later, blood was collected to confirm the presence of human insulin in the blood stream using human insulin ELISA (80-INSHU-E01, ALPCO, Salem, NH, United States) before initiation of treatment with ASO. Successful engraftment of human islets was affirmed by the presence of plasma human insulin in all 12 transplanted mice but not in non-transplanted controls. Fasting plasma insulin ranged from 4.7 to 31.0 μIU/ml, sensitivity of the assay 0.135 μIU/ml.