The study of the insulin secretory function of the bioartificial pancreas in vitro

Abstract

Objective To explore the impact of insulin secretory function of adult islet cells from barium-alginate microencapsulation in vitro. Methods After weighting the pancreas,human pancreatic islets were isolated with type V collagenase and purified by Ficoll's discontinuous density gradient centrifugation.The islet cell yield and purity were evaluated with microscope by DTZ staining.Human islets were coated by barium-alginate microencapsulation,and the viability was assessed by insulin release assay in vitro.Results After isolation,the average number of islet was about 3600 ±447 per gram pancreas.It was about 2140±207 after purification with more than 70％ purity.At day 2,4 and 6 after islet cell culture in vitro,basal insulin concentrations from the culture medium was measured,and the mean insulin concentration (mU/L) in media of the microencapsulated islet group at 2nd,4th and 6th day were 3.302±1.63、3.504±1.10 and 2.921±1.13 respectively,and those non-microencapsulated islet group were 3.814 ± 1.49、4.175 ±1.60、3.617± 1.34.There were no significant differences between these two groups (P＞0.05).Conclusions The bioartificial pancreas has effective insulin secretory function in vitro without being affected by barium-alginate microencapsulation. Key words: Bioartificial pancreas; Islet; Insulin,secretory