Isolation of Pancreatic Islets by FACS

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Diabetes affects more than 150 million people worldwide. Treating using insulin or drugs designed to overcome metabolic deficiencies causing the disease often have limited success since they do not cure the disease. Pancreatic transplantation have been used successfully, but the islet component of the pancreas is a small part of the total pancreas perhaps 1%. Recently, islet transplantation has been used successfully by the Edmonton group. However, current islet transplantation has been used successfully by the Edmonton group. However, current islet purification limits the numbers that can be treated and results in preparations that are inconsistent in yield, viability and functionality. It is here proposed to purify islets by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). New advances in the area of FACS will allow for greatly increased yield and activity of the highly purified islets. The greater quantity and greater activity of the new islet preparations will result in more successful and long-lasting islet transplantations. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: We propose to establish a system for sorting and purifying islets to be used in islet-based research and transplantation. This system will provide a higher quality, higher yield, and will be more cost effective than the current methods of obtaining/sorting islets. The application for islet production would be for diabetes and its related afflictions. The method proposed here is patentable and will be of substantial commercial value for licensing for the technology and distributing the islets.