Technique of Rat Islet Transplantation

Although the idea of islet transplantation reaches back to 1902 when Ssobolew proposed grafting of islets of Langerhans to cure diabetes mellitus [1], separation of islets of Langerhans from nonendocrine pancreatic tissue to a degree exceeding simple mechanical chopping started only in 1964 with the work of Moskalewksi [2] and 3 years later the refinement of the method by Lacy and Kostianovski in 1967 [3]. The principle of the still widely used technique is based upon an enzymatic digestion of the pancreatic collagen texture. Selective administration of collagenase into the exocrine pancreas via the pancreatic duct has markedly improved the results of islet isolation [4, 5] as it completely disperses in the organ and reduces both mechanical damage and direct contact of islets to the toxic enzyme. After the isolation process centrifugation along a density gradient has been confirmed to be simple and efficient for separation of the islets from nonendocrine tissue in rodents.