Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic-System • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123_1 • TakeNode 5b4fa0c5-cecb-45ba-aa39-6df4c833ed43
My first slide in the January 1988 Workshop of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society* in Oosterbeek, Holland, on our new Pancreas & Islet Transplantation Program that had just started in 1988, introduced this still undeveloped field of research the Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic-System (1).
This system ( GEPS ) in which the gastro-intestinal hormones influence the secretion of insulin and other hormones from the pancreatic islets – the “entero-insular” axis – is changed in transplantation of the pancreas or isolated islets of Langerhans.
Insulin feedback on the gut hormone CCK • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123_2 • TakeNode ac392976-fa14-4d1e-95bb-84e5808ee443
Evidence of insulin feedback on the gut hormone CCK was presented with this poster the next year at the Holland Digestive Disease Week congress in the RAI in Amsterdam (2).
Notes
1) Workshop of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society*, Oosterbeek (The Netherlands) January 22–23, 1988.
2) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Gooszen HG, Jansen JBMJ, Frölich M, Lamers CBHW. Evidence for insulin-feedback on fasting CCK in dogs. Holland Digestive Disease Week, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) June 21–24, 1989.
*NVDO – now known as : Dutch Association for Diabetes Research – https://www.nvdo.online/en/homepage-english/ Award – The year before I received the Dutch Diabetes Research Society 1987 Master’s thesis award for my master’s thesis “Effect of cyclosporine-A on the endocrine pancreas” (received at the Spring meeting of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society, Utrecht, The Netherlands, April 4, 1987).
Update 20250124 – added NVDO details and 1987 award master’s thesis “Effect of cyclosporine-A on the endocrine pancreas”
Citation info : Entero Insular Axis • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/23/
Congress of The Transplantation Society, Lobby of the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, California, USA, August 1990 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250118_1 • TakeNode 4af71bca-edaa-4adb-9dce-556534844f5b
Following papers presented in 1989 demonstrating that over 90% pure islets are isolated from pancreases when using the UW organ preservation solution (1), the outcome of transplantation of highly purified UW-isolated islets was reported in a proceedings paper presented August 1990 at the XIII International Congress of The Transplantation Society in San Francisco, USA (2,3). The Transplantation Proceedings paper, published Feb 1991 is now available online below (3).
Notes
1) Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/
2) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ploeg RJ, Frölich M, Bruijn JA, Scherft JP, Gooszen HG. Metabolic control after autotransplantation of highly purified canine pancreatic islets isolated in UW-solution. XIII International Congress of The Transplantation Society, San Francisco (USA) August 19–24, 1990.
3) van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ploeg RJ, Frölich M, Bruijn JA, Scherft JP, Gooszen HG. Metabolic control after autotransplantation of highly purified canine pancreatic islets isolated in UW solution. Transplant Proc. 1991 Feb;23(1 Pt 1):785-6. PMID: 1990691. PDF available below
Citation info : Transplants of UW-Isolated Islets • Transplantation Society 1990 Paper • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250118 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/18/
Montage of 100 years diabetes discoveries in educational wall display (created in 1998) from the Joslin Diabetes Center and Roche Diagnostics.
Music : Someday, Maybe by Maya Belsitzman & Matan Ephrat | Artlist
Citation info : Diabetes Discoveries Display • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250117 • TakeNode 00ff4392-ea87-40fb-90a2-ada2cbb77efb • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/17/
No Title • Oil- Acrylic painting by Hans Dudart • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250112_1 • TakeNode cbd20789-ebf5-4ede-925b-9b861c6719a4
Scan of print (10×15 cm; photo G.J. v.d. Poort) of oil- acrylic painting (60x50cm) by Hans Dudart.
Hans Dudart (1955-2003) worked as an artist in Holland, and as a valued co-worker in our Experimental Surgical Laboratory of the Leiden University Hospital (AZL, now LUMC) in Leiden, Holland. He died too soon from type 1 diabetes.
Citation info : No Title • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250112 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/12/
4th ESOT Slide #19 • Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_1 • TakeNode eeb55729-c02b-4f73-ab0e-9f71b65bf85e
Slide #19 of talk by Michel van der Burg at the 4th ESOT congress in Barcelona (Spain) Nov 1989 on the paper ‘Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept’ (1,2). Details of this talk were posted recently (2) with a scan of a paper print of slide #19 – slighly cropped with printing. Here the full image of the original slide, scanned by Kodak PhotoCD in 1994, with minor color correction added (20250103_1) in this post.
This ‘Slide #19’ shows the final dithizone stained sample of the UW-isolated islets after dextran density gradient purification — a micrograph made April 18, 1989 , the second islet isolation experiment performed using the UW-Solution as the isolation solution.
In the lab journal of the first isolation experiment with UW-Solution, Wednesday April 12th 1989, I noted on the final purified islet preparation : ‘handpicking for encapsulation was not necessary: preparation more than 90% pure ( translated from dutch : “handpicken voor inkapseling was niet nodig: preparaat meer dan 90% zuiver”)’.
‘Handpicking’ of islets had been done at the start of our islet lab in 1985-1987 for counting rodent islets in cell culture dishes, and monitoring islet insulin secretion in tubes (3). Soon, ‘handpicking’ was no longer needed , when monitoring the insulin secretion of isolated islets in perifusion chambers (4,5). However, the handpicking method was used again in a pilot study on encapsulation of islets in 1989 by medical student Joost Clemens (6). Joost had just started on this research project, and was assisting me with islet ‘counting’ (yield and purity assessment) in the ‘duplo’ samples from this first series of UWS isolations.
Handpicking Pancreatic Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_2 • TakeNode 7988ce39-6777-4db3-82c5-8191acdb13d6
Macro photography (Photo paper print, September 1987, AVC, Leiden University) of the aspiration of isolated canine pancreatic islets, in a suspension still contaminated with exocrine pancreatic fragments, at the tip of a hand blown glass handpicking pipette (custom made at the Leiden University) collected and transferred into tubes for monitoring insulin secretion the first year of pilot work in the Leiden islet laboratory (4).
2) Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/
3) Lucky #1 Islet • 20240811 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com
4) Cradle of Islet Transplants • 20240829 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com
5) Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • 20240911 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com
6) Joost A.M. Clemens (MSc student in Medicine) at the Department of Biomaterials (Prof. dr K. de Groot) and Department of Surgery of the Leiden University (Michel van der Burg , Hein Gooszen). Pilot study of the encapsulation of dog islets using the alginate polylysine and poly-HEMA-phospate method (1989). At that time , both the Biomaterials department and the Islet Lab of the Surgery department were housed in the building of the Cell Biology department of the Leiden University Hospital (AZL, now LUMC). Below a portrait snapshot I took of Klaas de Groot at a Garden party organized in 1989 by the Department of Cell Biology, Leiden University.
Klaas de Groot, Biomaterials Department of the Leiden University in 1989. Photo by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_3 • TakeNode c25a87b7-09a4-49ce-8c42-14142da1e066
Citation info : Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250103 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/03/
Oral Presentation Slide 19 ~ Pure Islets Isolated in UW Solution • Miracles.Media • 20241229_1 • TakeNode ce420e5a-1df7-4e4f-bcb6-6831434ffac7
In November 1989, I had my first chance for a presentation at a major international conference, the 4th ESOT meeting in Barcelona, of a paper centered on the rationale for employing the University of Wisconsin (UW) organ preservation solution in pancreatic islet isolation.
Venue 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241224 • TakeNode 103c4c3c-5d36-4111-a5f8-f60e81c5db4d
This innovative islet isolation work with the UW-Solution had been accepted as a poster presentation for the 4th ESOT meeting (1). I also took the opportunity to present this new work during a talk on previous isolation work (2,3) at this conference.
Barcelona Nov 1989 4th ESOT • Talk by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241229_2 • Photo : Grup Jaume Muntaner (Barcelona) • TakeNode 96957e2f-1462-48e1-aca1-4745198d9a54
‘Behind the scenes’ I had first remade my lost poster at the congress venue (1), and then I rewrote my speech in the hotel room on the older research (2) updated with the more recent work with the UW-Solution, and including the outcome of our first islet transplantations.
Barcelona 89 • Handout 4th ESOT Talk
Below a scan of that handout of the final speech, written out at full lenght in a notepad from a recent working visit in Minneapolis (4).
Barcelona 89 • Handout 4th ESOT Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241229_3 • TakeNode f8595a82-fba5-4a89-a01f-4c37976d06d7 • PDF FILE 20241229_3 copy is available here
( finishing speech first part on our previous islet isolation methods using the conventional RPMI solution – a solution originally designed for tissue culture, not for cold storage of organs )
Slide 18
Image Slide 18 (scan of print) • Best (Not Usual) Purity Islets RPMI Series • Miracles.Media • 20241229_4 • TakeNode a6afbf29-b3e6-41d0-abd0-07471303be15
This slide shows one of the purest preparations obtained, with an estimated purity of 65% islets. • On the average however a purity of only 30% was obtained.
Recently we adopted an entirely new approach to islet isolation. • Since UW, the new organ cold storage solution has been shown to allow long-term cold storage of the canine pancreas; • and, since islet isolation too is largely performed in the cold; • we tested this preservation solution as the isolation medium, throughout the isolation procedure in another 6 dogs; • as compared to the commonly used solutions like RPMI tissue culture medium.
Slide 19
Image Slide 19 (scan of print) – Usual Purity Islets UWS Series • Miracles.Media • 20241229_5 • TakeNode dacd3b99-5958-44fe-85ed-6abd55db2676
This slide shows the final dithizone stained preparation after dextran purification of UW-isolated islets. • UW did not affect islet yield • however, UW markedly improved purity : • acinar tissue is virtually absent.
2) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Van de Woude FT, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989. Oral presentation. (1)
3) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, van de Woude FJ, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. Transplant Proc. 1990 Aug;22(4):2044-5. PMID: 1697121. This paper appears to be not readily available online – a reprint copy is available at this site (1)
4) Working visit Sep – Oct 1989, joining the pancreatic islet isolation team of the pioneer transplant surgeon David Sutherland at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Citation info : Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/
As reported in our poster and the manuscript delivered in Barcelona of our paper ‘Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution: A New Concept’ we had been using collagenase in UW solution in this first short (n=4) series of experiments.
Please note, that I changed the description of the collagenase solution to Hanks’ solution (HBBS) when editing the author proof edition shortly before publication of the final paper August 1990 (PMID_2202137 ; 14) — to best convey our current insights and practice.
For hypothetical reasons only — because the UWS was expected to be detrimental perhaps to cell viablity at the higher temperatures during collagenase digestion of the pancreas (the first stage of islet isolation) — I decided to change the collagenase solution in June 1989 when I began a new series of islet isolations for our first canine islet transplants. From that point on, a modified Hanks’ solution was used for collagenase (17).
We did not observe a difference at the time , whether using one or the other solution for collagenase digestion , with respect to either islet purity, recovery, or viability at islet isolation and days later in culture.
Years later , again tor hypothetical reasons , collagenase in UWS was chosen for the isolation of pig islets, in experiments with a long cold ischemia time of the pancreas during transport with distant pancreas procurement from sows in a slaugtherhouse — Ballering (distant family) in Son — near the south border of The Netherlands, with injection of cold collagenase solution before transport, with the aim of better preservation of the islets (18).
Notes
17) Michael P.M. van der Burg. Pancreatic islet transplantation: studies on the technique and efficacy of islet isolation and transplantation. (Doctoral Thesis, Faculty of Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) , Leiden University), Boskoop: M.P.M. van der Burg | Miracles.Media (ISBN electronic, pdf, 9789080216402 ; ISBN print 9789080216419, 9080216410), 1994: 192 p. Leiden University https://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl/permalink/31UKB_LEU/18s393l/alma9940161419602711
18) Van der Burg MPM, Graham JM. Iodixanol density gradient preparation in University of Wisconsin solution for porcine islet purification. ScientificWorldJournal. 2003 Dec 1;3:1154-9. doi: 10.1100/tsw.2003.107. PMID: 14646009; PMCID: PMC5974767.
Citation info : Author Proof Edition • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241228 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/28/
