Human pancreatic islets in culture: effects of supplementing the medium with homologous and heterologous serum.

Islets of Langerhans, isolated from the human fetal pancreas and cultured in media supplemented with serums from human umbilical cord or adult donors, remained intact, free-floating, and functional for 2 to 5 months. Substitution of fetal calf serum for the human serum usually resulted in attachment of islets, monolayer formation, and relatively early (3 weeks) functional arrest.