Islet Culture/Preservation before Islet Transplantation

Abstract

Although islet culture prior to transplantation provides flexibility for the evaluation of isolated islets and the pretreatment of patients, it is well known that isolated islets deteriorate rapidly in culture. Human serum albumin (HSA) is used for medium supplementation instead of fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is typically used for islet culture research, to avoid the introduction of xenogeneic materials. However, FBS contains several factors that are beneficial to islet viability and which also neutralize the endogenous pancreatic enzymes or exogenous enzymes left over from the isolation process. Several groups have reported the comparison of cultures at 22°C and 37°C. Recent studies have demonstrated the superiority of 4°C preservation to 22°C and 37°C cultures. We herein review the current research on islet culture/preservation for clinical islet transplantation.