Fetal pancreatic tissue (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Pregnant sows are operated on at specific stages of their pregnancy (embryonic day 24 [E24], E28, E42, E56, E80, and E100) under general anesthesia, and embryos are extracted. Warm ischemia time is less than 10 min, and the embryos are transferred in cold PBS. Pig pancreas precursor cells for transplantation are extracted under a light microscope and maintained under sterile conditions at 4 °C in RPMI 1640 before transplantation, without any attempt to remove exocrine elements and without any other ex vivo manipulations. Cold ischemia time until transplantation is routinely less than 2 h.