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Human islets derived from donors after cardiac death are fully biofunctional.

Zhao M, Muiesan P, Amiel SA, Srinivasan P, Asare-Anane H, Fairbanks L, Persaud S, Jones P, Jones J, Ashraf S, Littlejohn W, Rela M, Heaton N, Huang GC

Diabetes Research Group, King's College London School of Medicine, London, UK.

Islets from brain-dead donors (BDDs) are being used in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. However, both donor numbers and islet survival are limited. We explored the clinical potential for islets from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs), who have lower circulating cytokines, by comparing islets from 10 NHBDs against 12 identically-isolated islets from BDDs over the same time period. The quantity and quality of islets from NHBDs was good. NHBD yielded approximately 12.6% more islets than those of BDDs (505,000 +/- 84,230 vs. 400,970 +/- 172,430 islet equivalent number [IEQ]/pancreas, p = 0.01) with comparable viability. ATP and GTP contents were lower (6.026 +/- 3.076 vs. 18.105 +/- 7.8 nM/mg protein, p = 0.01 and 1.52 +/- 0.87 vs. 3.378 +/- 0.83 nM/mg protein, p = 0.04) and correlated negatively to warm ischemia time (R(2)= 0.8022 and R(2)= 0.7996, respectively). Islets from NHBDs took longer to control hyperglycemia in diabetic mice, but were equally able to sustain euglycemia. With a warm ischemia time (WIT) of <or=25 min, islets from NHBDs are at least as competent as islets from BDDs and should be suitable for clinical use.

Published 11 September 2007 in Am J Transplant, 7(10): 2318-25.
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