The dog model has served as the primary method for early development of many diabetes therapies, including pancreatic islet transplantation techniques and immunosuppressive protocols. Recent trends towards the use of monoclonal antibody therapies for immunosuppression in human islet transplantation have led to the increasing use of primate models with induced diabetes. In addition to induced-disease models in large animals, scientists in many fields are considering the use of naturally-occurring disease models in client-owned pets. This article will review the applicability of naturally-occurring diabetes in dogs as a translational model for developing islet transplantation in the human diabetic patient.
Keywords: diabetes; dog; islet transplant; translational models.