Insulin secretory characteristics of monkey pancreatic islets: a simple method of islet isolation and the effect of various density gradients on separation

Increased Yield and Improved Transplantation Outcome of Mouse Islets with Bovine Serum Albumin

“…Testing with rats, it was found that more islets were obtained with BSA than Ficoll (714 to 368 islets per rat pancreas) and that there was less exocrine tissue contamination with BSA than with Ficoll prepared islets [12, 13]. A study with monkeys also obtained more islets with BSA as a separation gradient than Ficoll (862 ± 96 to 752 ± 101) but found that dextran had the best yield of the three (1038 ± 81) [14]. Field et al also reported similar results again in rats, by adding 35% BSA to a Dextran separation gradient [15].…”

Pancreatic islet isolation variables in non-human primates (rhesus macaques)

“…Primates are a promising preclinical model for islet transplantation research. Unfortunately there have only been a few reports analysing the results of large-scale NHP islet transplantation [4,18,19]. Poor availability of NHP tissue, long learning curves and prohibitive expenses constrain the consistency of isolated NHP islets for PIT studies, which in turn impedes large-scale cooperative studies to improve islet allotransplant results.…”

Long-Term Functions of Encapsulated Islets Grafted in Nonhuman Primates Without Immunosuppression

“…In vitro functions of the islets in the device were assessed by measuring GSIR into the medium as described earlier (16). In vivo functions of the islets were assessed by measuring GSIR in the blood collected from the femoral veins of both legs after intravenous glucose challenge test (0.5 g/kg).…”

“…Islets were isolated from surgically resected pancreatic tissue as per standard protocols for NHP islet isolation (16,17), purified by densitygradient centrifugation using Optiprep (50% iodixanol solution; AxisShield, Oslo, Norway), and counted microscopically. Then, 100 IEQ each were stored in Trizol for insulin and glucagon gene expression, viability, and functional studies.…”