Assessment of Human Pancreatic Islet Architecture and Composition by Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy

• DOI: 10.1369/jhc.5c6684.2005
• Publication Date: 2005-05-28T02:07:29Z
• Authors: Marcela Brissova; Michael J. Fowler; Wendell E. Nicholson; Anita Chu; Boaz Hirshberg; David M. Harlan; Alvin C. Powers
• Keywords: Pancreatic Islets

The recent success of pancreatic islet transplantation has generated considerable enthusiasm. To better understand the quality and characteristics human islets used for transplantation, we performed detailed analysis architecture composition using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Human from six separate isolations provided by three different isolation centers were compared with isolated mouse non-human primate islets. As expected histological sections murine pancreas, in α δ cells resided at periphery β-cell core. However, markedly that α, β, dispersed throughout islet. This pattern cell distribution was present all preparations various sizes also seen pancreas. very similar to Using an image program, calculated volume cells. In contrast islets, found populations types varied considerably results indicate not only are quite heterogeneous terms but have a substantially widely studied