A Review of Informed Consent for Porcine Islet Xenotransplantation to Treat Type 1 Diabetes.

PURPOSE: The objective of this review is to map and synthesize the existing literature regarding informed consent for porcine islet xenotransplantation for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes.

METHODS

The search was conducted in May 2025 through the following databases: PubMed, SCOPUS, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Broad search strings were used to combine the text words "islet" AND "xenotransplantation" AND "consent" or similar permutations and combinations. Peer-reviewed articles were included if they were published between January 1990 and May 2025 and written in English. The final search results were manually exported to a reference manager system (Zotero), and the PRISMA-ScR flow diagram was created to depict the data extraction process.

RESULTS

From 134 sources, 7 articles met eligibility for this scoping review. Although clinical studies have been sporadically conducted, there is a lack of literature describing informed consent for islet xenotransplantation.

CONCLUSION

This review highlighted a scarcity of scholarly discourse and published guidance on informed consent specifically in the context of islet xenotransplantation.