title: Influence of strain and age differences on the yields of porcine islet isolation: extremely high islet yields from SPF CMS miniature pigs.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Hyeon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyoung-Il
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kang-Woo
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jae Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sun Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ho Sun
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Chung-Gyu
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sung-Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ihm
authors.forename: Jongwon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Sang Joon
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hong Kyu
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Curie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Kyong Soo
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: 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*