PRESERVATION TIME-DEPENDENT MORPHOLOGICAL-CHANGES IN COLD-STORED HUMAN DONOR PANCREAS

Pancreatic transplantation is being used to treat insulin-dependent di abetes. An intact structure of the graft is a prerequisite for preserv ed function and we therefore monitored the light microscopic and ultra structural changes in 30 human donor pancreases stored in the cold in University of Wisconsin preservation solution. Twenty-three pancreases were stored for less than 24 h and 7 for more than 30 h. All glands s tored longer than 30 h displayed cytoplasmic vacuolisation in a variab le proportion of acinar cells. In addition, the glands stored over 40 h showed focal acinar necrosis. Endocrine tissue was only slightly aff ected, while duct cells showed no changes. It is concluded that cold p reserved pancreases stored for less than 24 h are best for transplanta tion purposes and that acinar cells are more sensitive to ischaemic da mage than endocrine and duct cells.