| Therapy |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| AIT |
Achieve excellent glycemic control without hypoglycemia
Possible to achieve insulin-free status
Minimally invasive transplant
Many clinical cases
|
Donor shortage
Expensive
Need for immunosuppression
Poor long-term efficacy for insulin independence
|
| XIT |
Reduced occurrence of unaware hypoglycemia
No immunosuppression with encapsulation technology
No donor shortage
Sterile donor pigs
|
Limited clinical experience
Low efficacy compared to AIT at present
Possible zoonosis from pig islets
|
| DNA |
Prevent progression of type 1 diabetes by suppressing auto-immune activation
|
Recent clinical trial using GAD65 vaccination was not so effective
Beta-cell replacement therapy is needed once patients lose the majority of islets
|
| IPS |
Possible to create beta cells
Infinite cell expansion
Japan leads this field
No ethical issues, as opposed to the use of embryonic stem cells
No immunosuppressants needed when created from patients’ own cells
|
Still experimental
Technical difficulty creating beta cells
|
