HUMAN ISLET DISTRIBUTION ACTIVITY 

FOR BASIC RESEARCH: ANNUAL REPORT 2007

Tatsuya Kin, Doug O’Gorman, Wendy Zhai, Brad Richer, Shawn Rosichuk,

Adam Schroeder, Andrew Malcolm, AM James Shapiro

Clinical Islet Laboratory and Clinical Islet Transplant Program,

University of Alberta and Capital Health

Background: The primary purpose of the Clinical Islet Laboratory (CIL) at the University of Alberta is to manufacture purified human islets for clinical transplantation.  As a secondary role, the CIL provides human islets and/or pancreatic tissue for basic research when islet preparations do not meet release criteria for transplantation.  The purpose of this report is to highlight the CIL islet distribution activity this past year.

Methods: We reviewed our islet isolation batch files and islet shipment records between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.  During this period 61, pancreata were procured from deceased donors and processed for islet isolation.

Results: Research consent was obtained in 31 out of 61 pancreata.  Ten islet preparations went on clinical transplantation; 5 were used for clinical transplantation (islet fraction) and for basic research (non-islet fraction); 26 were shipped for basic research; and 20 were discarded due to no research consent.  The CIL supplied 5,218,849 IEQs in 69 shipments (ranging from 10,000 to 305,000 IEQs/shipment) to 4 investigators at the Alberta Diabetes Institute and 4 others in the North America.  In addition, the CIL provided non-islet fractions to 3 researchers interested in ductal cells studies (47 shipments).  Among the 8 investigators, 5 were on the activated list for the entire 12 months.  Each of these 5 received ~16 shipments per year.  The CIL has requested user feedback for each shipment.  Eighty-three feedback forms were returned out of 116 sent.  Most forms (n=62, 75%) reported that the tissue quality was “excellent” or “good” whereas the users rated the quality as “fair” in 16 preparations (19%) or “poor” in 5 (6%).  There was no difference in quality ratings judged by the local users versus distant users.

Conclusion: The current supply versus demand ratio per shipment seems to be appropriate.  Unpredictability of organ supply may be problematic for researchers, nonetheless each user seems to be satisfied with quality and quantity of the product.  Because multiple users receive the same product, creation of a network system among users and the CIL, and sharing information would be of great benefit for better understanding of islet cell biology.

Key Words: Human islet, Islet isolation, Islet shipment

Presented at Alberta Diabetes Institute Research Day, 2008, Edmonton