Perfusion preservation of cadaver rat pancreas: II. Culture after perfusion and successful transplantation.

We designed a new process for culturing pancreatic islets and applied this method to cultures of rat pancreatic islets which had degenerated during preservation by the perfusion-method for 6 hours under the condition of hypothermia and oxygenation. The objective was to determine the extent of the original function. Transplantation of these so-treated islets was also attempted. When pancreatic islets isolated from the pancreas after 6-hour-perfusion were cultured, morphological restoration was apparent within the first 3-4 days. Insulin contents of the culture media renewed every 3 days, ranged from 851 to 1,134 microU/ml/two islets during culture period of 21 days. In the glucose-loading test, insulin secretion of the islets was the same as that of islets in the control experiments. Transplantation of these islets into the portal vein of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats resulted in a good recovery from the diabetic state.