A Good Breath of Oxygen for Beta-Like Cells Obtained From Porcine Exocrine Pancreatic Tissue

Beyond islet transplantation in diabetes cell therapy: from embryonic stem cells to transdifferentiation of adult cells

Exogenous insulin is, at the moment, the therapy of choice of diabetes, but does not allow tight regulation of glucose leading to long-term complications. Recently, pancreatic islet transplantation to reconstitute insulin-producing β cells, has emerged as an alternative promising therapeutic approach. Unfortunately, the number of donor islets is too low compared with the high number of patients needing a transplantation leading to a search for renewable sources of high-quality β-cells. This review, summarizes more recent promising approaches to the generation of new β-cells from embryonic stem cells for transdifferentiation of adult cells, particularly a critical examination of the seminal work by Lumelsky et al.

Histologic effects of University of Wisconsin two-layer method preservation of rat pancreas

Marginal donors represent a poorly utilized source of organs for transplantation despite their availability. The key is to reduce the ischemic damage in the effort to improve organ quality. This study investigated the histologic effects after in situ perfusion of preservation with a two-layer method compared with the classic University of Wisconsin preservation in term of tissue integrity and number of viable exocrine cells in the rat pancreas both after exsanguination and at 8 weeks of cryopreservation. Pancreata harvested from 60 rats were collected using 3 methods: two-layer method following University of Wisconsin perfusion; exsanguination; and classic University of Wisconsin perfusion/storage. In addition to histologic analysis of collected pancreata, we analyzed the number of CK19(+) cells and their viability using chi-square tests with values P < .05 considered to be significant. Rat pancreas histology showed as University of Wisconsin in situ perfusion and preservation by the two-layer method to be more effective to maintain the morphologic integrity of both exocrine and endocrine tissues. There were a larger number of CK19(+) cells with good viability. Moreover, the effects of oxygenation were visible in pancreas biopsies preserved after exsanguination. In situ University of Wisconsin perfusion and preservation for 240 minutes with the two-layer method yielded greater numbers and viability of CK19(+) cells even after 8 weeks of cryopreservation.