Rajan AS, Navran SS.
Diabetes. 1999 May; 48 Suppl 1: A340.
The limited availability of pancreatic islets is a major impediment to islet transplantation. In particular, long-term preservation and cell culture of isolated islets poses a significant technical challenge. Recently, a rotating bioreactor was developed at NASA to facilitate cell culture of tissues in a mechanically stress-free environment. The simulated microgravity state created in the bioreactor has proven useful in the construction and long-term culture of several hard-to-grow primary tissues such as liver, cartilage, skin, muscle and tumors. The objective of this research was to examine the utility of the NASA microgravity bioreactor in islet cell culture. Clonal hamster islet beta (HIT) cells and mouse islet alpha (alpha TC-6) cells were co-cultured in the rotating bioreactor. Within 72 hours, three-dimensional islet cell clusters were observed. Immunohistochemical analysis of the formalin-fixed, near-spherical aggregates revealed a distinct central core of insulin-positive, beta cells surrounded by a peripheral mantle of glucagon-positive, alpha cells. Remarkably, this cell-specific arrangement (mimicking native islet cytoarchitecture) occurred despite the different species sources of cells and their tumoral nature. Furthermore, functional examination of the islet cell aggregates demonstrated typical insulin and glucagon secretary responses to physiological secretagogues including glucose and amino-acids. These studies suggest that microgravity-based tissue culture may be an important novel method for in vitro islet cell assembly. The potential to construct islets in mass culture and preserve their viability in long-term culture using microgravity bioreactors may be a valuable asset for islet transplantation. In addition, this approach may provide new physiological insights into cell-cell interactions within the pancreatic islet.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Animals
- Bioreactors
- Cell Culture Techniques
- Coculture Techniques
- Cricetinae
- Glucagon
- Glucose
- In Vitro
- Insulin
- Islets of Langerhans
- Islets of Langerhans Transplantation
- Mice
- Mice, Inbred NOD
- Tissue Engineering
- Weightlessness
- Weightlessness Simulation
- surgery
- transplantation
Other ID:
UI: 102194945
From Meeting Abstracts