THE FASCIOVASCULAR FLAP - A NEW VEHICLE FOR ISLET TRANSPLANTATION

In order to determine whether pancreatic islets could be neovasculariz ed by a fasciovascular flap (FVP), islet transplant studies were condu cted in Lewis rats. Islets from two donors were isolated by collagenas e digestion and discontinuous gradient centrifugation on Ficoll. These islets were injected in syngeneic recipients either into random groin SC fat as a control, or into a flap composed of fascia and fat elevat ed from the groin based on tile superficial inferior epigastric vessel s. After two wk, islet viability was assessed by histological analysis . The degree of neovascularization of the islet tissue was evaluated w ith India ink injection through the vascular pedicle. Whereas control islets degenerated and did not show clear signs of neovascularization, FVP-islets showed rich neovascularization and viability as a large sh eet of islet clusters. These results have demonstrated that the FVP-fl ap is a novel recipient site which can support a large quantity of isl et tissue. This model constitutes a unique neo-endocrine pancreas flap , which can be subsequently transplanted at will to transfer the estab lished neo-endocrine pancreas to a desired site using microvascular su rgical technique.