title: Isolation and function of human and pig islets.
abstract: This report confirms reproducible methods to isolate and assess viability and function of pig and human islets. We processed 10 pig and five human pancreata. The pancreata were digested by a modification of Ricordi's automated method for islet isolation. The number of islet equivalents (150 microns diameter islets) was 335,190 +/- 79,345 islets per pig pancreas (5,146 +/- 1,274 islets/g pig pancreas) and 323,630 +/- 147,810 per human pancreas (6,252 +/- 2,572 islets/g human pancreas). The majority of islets were in the range of 50-200 microns diameter, and 20% of the islet population had a size distribution of 200 microns diameter in both porcine and human models. The purity of the final preparations exceeded 90%. The secretory response of perifused islets showed a biphasic insulin release pattern in both species. Perifused fresh pig islets released 2.5 pmol/L islet-1 min-1 at 2.0 mM glucose and 6.2 pmol/L islet-1 min-1 at 16.7 mM glucose. After 7 days culture at 37 degrees C, human islets released 1.32 pmol/L islet-1 min-1 at 2.0 mM and 12.24 pmol/L islet-1 min-1 at 16.7 mM. These results indicate that this procedure is useful to obtain pure, large, and functional islets from pig and human pancreata.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine 92717.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takei
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teruya
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grunewald
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Charles
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013552:Swine