title: Quality of Air-Transported Human Islets for Single Islet Cell Preparations.
abstract: In new generation medical therapies for type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), cell-based approaches using pancreatic islets have attracted significant attention worldwide. In particular, dispersed islet cells obtained from isolated pancreatic islets have been a valuable source in the cell biology and tissue engineering fields. Our experimental approach to the development of new islet-based DM therapies consisted of creating a monolithic islet cell sheet format using dispersed islet cells. In this experiment, we explored the potential of internationally transporting human islets from Alberta, Canada to Tokyo, Japan and obtaining viable dispersed islet cells. A total of 34 batches of isolated and purified human islets were transported using a commercial air courier service. Prior to shipping, the human islets had been in culture for 0-108 h at the University of Alberta. The transportation period from Alberta to Tokyo was 2-5 days. The transported human islet cells were enzymatically dispersed as single cells in Tokyo. The number of single islet cells decreased as the number of transportation days increased. In contrast, cell viability was maintained regardless of the number of transportation days. The preshipment culture time had no effect on the number or viability of single cells dispersed in Tokyo. When dispersed single islet cells were plated on laminin-5-coated temperature-responsive polymer-grafted culture dishes, the cells showed favorable attachment followed by extension as a monolithic format. The present study demonstrated that long-distance transported human islets are a viable cell source for experiments utilizing dispersed human islet cells.
authors: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University , Tokyo , Japan.
authors: Shingo
authors: S
authors: Yamashita
authors: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan; †Department of Surgery, Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Kazuo
authors: K
authors: Ohashi
authors: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University , Tokyo , Japan.
authors: Rie
authors: R
authors: Utoh
authors: ‡ Clinical Islet Transplant Program, University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta , Canada.
authors: Tatsuya
authors: T
authors: Kin
authors: ‡ Clinical Islet Transplant Program, University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta , Canada.
authors: A M James
authors: AM
authors: Shapiro
authors: † Department of Surgery, Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical University , Tokyo , Japan.
authors: Masakazu
authors: M
authors: Yamamoto
authors: § Department of Regenerative Surgery, Fukushima Medical University , Fukushima , Japan.
authors: Mitsukazu
authors: M
authors: Gotoh
authors: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University , Tokyo , Japan.
authors: Teruo
authors: T
authors: Okano
keywords: Dispersed islet cells; Islet transportation; Laminin-5; Temperature-responsive polymer-grafted culture dish