Experimental Pancreas Islet Isolation in Non- Human Primate

Kim, Song Cheol; Han, Duck Jong; Hering, Bernard J

Abstract

Transplantation of the pancreas islet cell has been demonstrated to be able to cure for type I diabetes. It can offer not only discontinuing of insulin but also preventing of complications from diabetes. Islet cell transplantation has been very successful in small animals, but it is still unsuccessful in large animal, especially in non-human primate. Non-human primate trial has a value as a preclinical model prior to human application because of its close phylogenetic relationship to human. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to develop the constant isolation method for obtaining sufficient number of islet in non-human primate pancreas to allow the human clinical islet transplantation more feasibly.
METHODS
Ten pancreas were procured from cynomolgus (Macaca fasicularis) monkey. Islet isolation was done with the modified Ricordi's method using the new brand enzyme Liberase HI. Quantitaion of islet, viability staining insulin release without or with glucose stimulation, intracellular insulin content, DNA assay and in vivo transplantation into diabetic nude mice were done for quality control of islets.
RESULTS
2760 IEQ/pancreas gram with 91% of purity were able to be obtained by this isolation method using the new enzyme Liberase HI. These islets showed good quality of function, which demonstrated by in vitro standard assays. Euglycemia were achieved in 90% of streptozotocin induced diabetic nude mice by transplantation the purified islets (2,000 IEQ) into the subrenal space.
CONCLUSION
Sufficient number of islets could be obtained from non-human primate through our method, and islets were able to respond glucose challenge and to eliminate the diabetes in streptozotocin induced diabetic nude mice. This implies we will be able to use this method as a preclinical model for human application for islet transplantation.