Influence of strain and age differences on the yields of porcine islet isolation: extremely high islet yields from SPF CMS miniature pigs.
BACKGROUND
Porcine pancreas is a potential source of material for islet xenotransplantation. However, the difficulty in isolating islets, because of their fragility and the variability of isolation outcome in donor age and breed, represents a major obstacle to porcine islet xenotransplantation. In this study, we compared the islet isolation yield of specific pathogen-free (SPF) Chicago Medical School (CMS) miniature pigs with that of another miniature pig breed and market pigs from a local slaughterhouse.


METHODS
Nine adult CMS miniature (ACM) pigs (>12 months), six young CMS miniature (YCM) pigs (6-7 months), four adult Prestige World Genetics (PWG) miniature (APM) pigs (>12 months), and 13 adult market (AM) pigs from a local slaughterhouse were used for islet isolation.


RESULTS
The islet yield per gram of pancreas from ACM pigs (9589 +/- 2823 IEQ/g) was significantly higher than that from APM pigs (1752 +/- 874 IEQ/g, P < 0.05), AM pigs (1931 +/- 947 IEQ/g, P < 0.05), or YCM pigs (3460 +/- 1985 IEQ/g, P < 0.05). Isolated islets from ACM pigs were significantly larger than those from AM pigs or YCM pigs. The in vitro and in vivo function of isolated islets showed no difference among experimental groups. The pancreases of ACM pigs contained higher mean islet volume density percentages and larger size of islets than those of AM or APM pigs.


CONCLUSIONS
We isolated extremely high yields of well-functioning islets from ACM pigs bred under SPF conditions. SPF CMS miniature pigs should be one of the best porcine islet donors for clinical porcine islet xenotransplantation.
Kim
Jae Hyeon
JH
Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Hyoung-Il
HI
Lee
Kang-Woo
KW
Yu
Jae Eun
JE
Kim
Sun Hee
SH
Park
Ho Sun
HS
Park
Chung-Gyu
CG
Ihm
Sung-Hee
SH
Ha
Jongwon
J
Kim
Sang Joon
SJ
Lee
Hong Kyu
HK
Ahn
Curie
C
Park
Kyong Soo
KS
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D017849:Animals, Inbred Strains; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000601:surgery*; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology*