No description available.

Islet transplantation is an attractive method to achieve blood glucose homeostasis. However, β-cell function declines over time. Therefore, it is necessary to explore strategies to enhance the β-cell mass and function. Also, because there is a severe shortage of human cadaver tissue, alternative sources of insulin secreting tissue need to be examined. Neonatal porcine islet (NPI) tissue has emerged as an attractive alternative source of β-cells. The aim of this thesis was to optimize the culturing conditions of NPIs pre-transplantation so that the available tissue can be used as efficiently and economically as possible. The results from this study indicate that the treatment of NPI cultures with z-VAD-FMK, a pan caspase inhibitor and general protease inhibitor significantly enhances β-cell survival. Additionally, the optimum length of culturing NPIs pre-transplantation appears to be 3-5 days. Since widespread cell death stimulates immunogenic response, this treatment also has the potential benefit of reducing immunosuppression needs in the recipient. / Experimental Surgery

No description available.

The need for an unlimited source of islets and a safer method of immunosuppression has limited the widespread application of islet transplantation. To remedy the shortage of donor tissue, xenotransplantation of neonatal porcine islets (NPI) has been proposed. In this study we sought to determine if combining co-transplantation of NPI with Sertoli cells (SC) with a short-term monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy would prevent NPI xenograft rejection. We hypothesize that this combination of treatments will lead to long-term NPI xenograft survival. Our result show a significant increase in the proportion of mice achieving long-term graft survival compared to untreated mice transplanted with NPI alone, as 7/7 mice treated with anti-LFA-1 mAb (p=0.001), 7/8 mice treated with anti-CD154 mAb (p=0.003), and 4/9 mice treated with anti-CD45RB mAb (p=0.020) achieved and maintained normoglycemia long-term. Therefore, we conclude that the combination of mAb therapy with SC is highly efficacious in preventing NPI xenograft rejection. / Experimental Surgery