One Hundred Human Pancreatic Islet Isolations at Baylor Research Institute

Abstract

The effectiveness of pancreatic islet isolation must be maximized to make islet cell transplantation (ICT) a standard therapy. We have performed 100 human islet isolations at Baylor Research Institute including islet isolations for research, for clinical allogeneic transplantation, and for autologous islet transplantation. In this study, we analyzed the results of these isolations. First, we assessed 79 islet isolations using brain-dead donors to determine variables associated with successful islet isolation. Univariate logistic regression analysis revealed that seven variables influenced the success of islet isolation for allogeneic ICT: cause of death, mechanism of death, techniques for pancreas procurement and preservation, heavy fatty infiltration, collagenase type, dilution time, and islet purification method. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that only the current isolation protocol, the Baylor Islet Isolation Method (BIIM)—with its four required elements of pancreas procurement by the team, pancreatic ductal injection, the two-layer method with perfluorocarbon, and density-adjusted density gradient purification—had a significant positive impact on successful islet isolation (P = 0.02). Second, we compared allogeneic and autologous ICT using the BIIM. There were no significant differences in islet yields between allogeneic and autologous ICT using the BIIM; total islet yield after purification was 628 ± 84 × 10³ IE in allogeneic ICT vs. 576 ± 49 × 10³ IE in autologous ICT (P = 0.59). This retrospective study revealed that the BIIM provided favorable outcomes for both autologous and allogeneic ICT.