Alberta Islet Distribution Program

HUMAN ISLET DISTRIBUTION ACTIVITY

FOR BASIC RESEARCH: ANNUAL REPORT 2010

Tatsuya Kin, Doug O’Gorman, Wendy Zhai, Adam Schroeder, Chris Onderka,

Brad Richer, Shawn Rosichuk, AM James Shapiro

Clinical Islet Laboratory and Clinical Islet Transplant Program

Background: The Clinical Islet Laboratory (CIL) at the University of Alberta/Alberta Health Services distributes human islets for basic research when islet preparations fail to meet release criteria for transplantation. This report highlights the CIL islet distribution activity for diabetes research this past year and reviews any trends over the 4-year period.

Methods: We reviewed our islet isolation batch files and islet shipment records for the past 4 years. Shipments of acinar enriched fraction for research were not included to this report.

Results: In 2010 (from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011), 27 islet preparations out of 74 went for clinical transplantation; 37 were distributed for basic research; and 10 were not utilized due to insufficient islet yield with no research consent.

Transplant conversion rate went down from 47.4% in 2009 to 36.5% in 2010; however in 2010, the CIL consistently produced high grade clinical islets (40 of 74 preparations yielded >350,000 IEQs in 2010 vs 39 of 78 yielded >350,000 IEQs in 2009). A recent shortage in the recipient pool may explain this discrepancy. As a result of the decrease in the number of transplants, the number of research islet preparations increased from 29 (37%) in 2009 to 37 (50%) in 2010. The number of investigators receiving islets from the CIL was stable over the 4-year period. In 2010 the CIL distributed islets to 4 investigators at the ADI and 7 others outside of Alberta including Japan and Israel. Among 4 ADI investigators, the most active investigator did not miss any islet shipments whereas one investigator received only 43% of shipments at their request. Importantly, the CIL provides islets without cost to the investigator except for shipping cost when applicable. Free islet distribution is partially owing to the facts that the CIL conducts human islet isolation for clinical transplant only and that the CIL staff willingly take on the extra tasks in order to maximize the utilization of this valuable resource.

Conclusions: Our islet distribution program has been extremely active, locally, nationally, and internationally, and will continue to distribute high quality clinical grade human islets for basic research.

Presented at Alberta Diabetes Institute Research Day, 2011, Edmonton