Adult pigs as a source of insulin‐producing tissue for xenotransplantation: Islet separation technology

Abstract: Porcine pancreata have been extensively studied as a source of insulin‐producing tissue for human transplantation. Substantial technical problems hampered the development of reproducible techniques for islet separation from the adult pig pancreas. Since the introduction of the automated method for human islet transplantation, many steps have been implemented to optimize this method and to adapt it to the requirements of porcine islet isolation. This paper describes the protocols now widely used for adult porcine islet separation and summarizes some of the key variables that influence reproducibility and islet isolation outcome.