Islet transplantation has proven to be a potential cure for insulin-dependent diabetic patients (Shapiro et al. 2000). Islet isolation is crucial for successful islet transplantation. Islet mass, islet quality and islet purity are determined by islet isolation ef cacy, which depends on many factors, including organ procurement, collagenase digestion and puri cation method (Williams et al. 1995, Vos-Scheperkeuter et al. 1997, Morrison et al. 2002. Apart from differences in islet yield among species (van Suylichem et al. 1995, Wieczorek et al. 1998, variability in islet yield within one species is also found (van Deijnen et al. 1992). These variations can be attributed to organ quality (van der Burg et al. 1994b), batch-to-batch variation in collagenase preparation (Wolters et al. 1990(Wolters et al. , 1992, and donor age