HUMAN ISLET DISTRIBUTION ACTIVITY

FOR BASIC RESEARCH: ANNUAL REPORT 2011

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

Brad Richer, Shawn Rosichuk, AM James Shapiro

Clinical Islet Laboratory, Alberta Health Services / University of Alberta

Background: Clinical Islet Laboratory (CIL) at Alberta Health Services/University of Alberta distributes human islets for basic research when islet preparations fail to meet release criteria for transplantation.  This report highlights CIL islet distribution activity for diabetes research this past year and reviews any trends over the 5-year period.

Methods: We reviewed our islet isolation batch files and islet shipment records for the past 5 years.  Shipments of acinar enriched fraction for research were not included in this report.

Results: In 2011 (from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012), 51 islet preparations out of 102 went for clinical transplantation; 36 were distributed for basic research; and 15 were not utilized due to insufficient islet yield or medical judgement with no research consent.

Transplant conversion rate of 50.0% and the number of islet isolation procedures of 102 in 2011 were the highest figures during the last 5 years.  Although the research distribution rate went down from 50.0% in 2010 to 35.3% in 2011, the absolute number of research islet preparations was similar.  The number of investigators receiving islets from CIL has increased steadily from 2 prior to 2007 to 13 in 2011.  Despite this significant growth in demand, CIL still has a capability to supply enough islets to investigators locally, nationally, and internationally (~20,000 IEQs/investigator x 36 times/year).  Lastly our islet distribution activity resulted in an extensive and growing list of scientific publications including 11 articles in 2011.

Conclusions: With the 5-year track record, CIL remains the leading program to distribute high quality clinical grade human islets for basic research.

Keywords: human islet, islet isolation, islet shipment