Introduction: Islet transplantation has been introduced as a promising approach for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 1. Despite many efforts to achieve a perfect treatment, further investigation is still needed to eliminate limitations and challenging issues. The objective of the present systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy of islet transplantation in diabetes mellitus type 1.
Evidence acquisition: We conducted a systematic review on the results of clinical studies on islet cell transplantation between January 2015 and November 2021. The Search strategy was designed and conducted in PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science.
Evidence synthesis: Studies have indicated that islet transplantation can reduce the daily insulin requirement as well as improving metabolic stability in diabetic patients. Even in some patients, insulin independence was achieved during the first year of transplantation.
Conclusions: Findings show that islet transplantation has a potential to become a promising treatment for diabetes mellitus type 1. In this regard, to obtain a trustworthy result, it is essential to design clinical studies (RCTs) with large sample size and long follow-up (cohort studies) to achieve a comprehensive and accurate appraisal of islet transplantation.