Functional and Survival Analysis of Isolated Human Islets

Abstract Background and Aims Pancreatic islet transplantation has become one of the potential treatments for type 1 diabetes. We evaluated functional and viability parameters of isolated islets in relation to donors clinical characteristics and preparation variables. Methods Islets were isolated from 70 nondiabetic multiorgan donors of overall age of 62.5 ± 15.9 years. There were 41 men and 29 women. Their mean body mass index (BMI) was 25.62 ± 3.09 kg/m 2 . We evaluated the islet number (IEQ/g pancreatic tissue) insulin release (IR; μU/islet/min) in response to 3.3 (g) or 16.7 (G) mmol/L glucose; calcium flux concentration (CFC); and islet cell viability. Results IEQ was 5249 ± 1505, with 73.7 ± 14.96% viable islet cells. IR was 0.03 ± 0.01 at g and 0.11 ± 0.06 at G (stimulation index [S] = 3.24 ± 1.96). CFC was 1.95 ± 1.03 ΔRFU. We observed positive correlations between viable cells and IR at g ( R 2 = 0.260; P = .013), IR at G ( R 2 = 0.165; P = .013), and CFC ( R 2 = 0.175; P = .047). A positive correlation was documented between BMI and g ( R 2 = 0.245; P = .016) and negative correlations between age with SI ( R 2 = 0.188; P = .052) and cold ischemia time with IEQ ( R 2 = 0.865; P = .0061). Conclusions These results showed that quality control of isolated human pancreatic islets allowed assessment of beta-cell function and survival before transplantation, revealing several important variables.