NORMALIZATION OF DIABETES BY XENOTRANSPLANTATION OF CRYOPRESERVED MICROENCAPSULATED PANCREATIC-ISLETS - APPLICATION OF A NEW STRATEGY IN ISLET BANKING

To develop a requisite islet bank for the clinical implementation of a n injectable bioartificial endocrine pancreas, microencapsulated islet s were cryopreserved and assessed both in vitro by static glucose chal lenge and in a transplantation study. The insulin response of cryopres erved encapsulated rat islets was comparable with fresh islets. Transp lantation of 800-900 banked rat islets resulted in the normalization o f the metabolic blood glucose perturbation, body weight, and general h ealth characteristics in 8 out of 8 diabetic mice for the study durati on of 90 days. Whereas free islets are easily fragmented and lost duri ng the freezing process, the capsule protects the fragile islets from freezing damage, increasing the retrieval rate from 79.5+/-9.8% to 97. 2+/-1.3.