Dutch Islets Transplant Team • @1MEMO 20250125

Islets isolated April 18, 1989 using the UW-Solution • Miracles.Media • 20250103_1 • TakeNode eeb55729-c02b-4f73-ab0e-9f71b65bf85e

Rightaway, April 1989, when we obtained these highly purified canine islets of Langerhans by introducing the UW-Solution for isolating the islets from pancreases (1,2,3), we started using these islets to study the importance of gut factors for islet transplants — the capacity of the isolated islets to secrete insulin during stimulation with glucose, other nutrients, and potentially gut hormones ( ‘incretins’).

Isolated islets in perifusion chambers

Isolated islets, not transplanted, were examined in the Leiden Islet Laboratory. The insulin secretion of these islets was measured, while the islets were housed in plastic micro-chambers , that were flushed with solutions containing various levels of glucose and gut hormones , mimicking the blood levels as found following meals in islet transplants (4).

Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20240911

Autotransplantation of islets

A few months later , Summer 1989, we performed a series of transplants of isolated canine islets (5) , we likewise focussed our research on the importance of gut factors in metabolic control by the islet grafts, and therefore introduced meal tests — apart from a series of intravenous tests. Both simple and convenient, such meal tests proofed to be also an excellent way to study both the capacity of the transplanted islets to secrete insulin, as well as the contribution of gut hormones – in the so-called ‘entero-insular axis’ (6).

Contribution of gut factors to canine isolated islet function ?

Spring 1990 our first results could be presented of these sophisticated islet function tests upto 3 months after islet transplantation, together with our first findings of the direct effects of the gut hormones CCK and GIP on the isolated islets in the perifusion system in the Leiden Islet Lab.

Spring meeting 1990 of the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology, Veldhoven, Netherlands • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_2

Here the proceedings presented at the 1990 spring meeting of the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology (7).

Dutch Islets Transplant Team

October 8, 1990, Paul van Suylichem, from the Groningen islet research group, visited his alma mater again, the Leiden University on the occasion of the 3rd Symposium Experimental Surgical Research (SEOHS).
I was presenting results at the symposium on metabolic control upto 3 mo after the succesful canine islet transplants – islets isolated using the UW-Solution – known as Viaspan for the cold storage of donor organs (8,9).
Paul had started together with me in 1985 building the Leiden Islet Lab (10), that I continued from 1986 after Paul left together with project leader Reinout van Schilfgaarde starting the Groningen islet group (11).
I took the chance to invite Paul for a visit together that day in the nearby Leiden Islet Lab , for a closer look at our latest work on canine islet isolation, transplantation, and the new Percoll-UWS purification gradients (12) — and took this picture of Paul examining an islet prep at the microscope in the lab , with the Acusyst perifusion system in the background.
In late 1990, the Groningen islet team with Paul would also start this preclinical model of canine islet isolation and transplantation.

Paul van Suylichem (Groningen Islet Team) in Leiden Islet Laboratory, October 8, 1990 • Photo by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_3

A year later, Oct 1991, during the 5th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation Congress (5th ESOT) in Maastricht (12), I learned from Paul’s co-worker Jan-Erik van Deijnen that the Groningen team, after initially several failed transplant attempts, had finally succeeded in the last 5 transplants in a row. They had mastered the technique and had started to complete this work with histology of the transplants.

We, in Leiden, had made plans earlier that summer to expand our small group of islet transplants, with a second series of transplants with a view to expanding our research on metabolic control in islet transplantation, with new sophisticated research on the effect on insulin secretion of the newly discovered gut hormone GLP-1. At the same time we would also be able to test our efficient new technique of isolation and purification of the islets in that transplantation setting.

A few days after this 5th ESOT congress it seemed better to me to refrain from new transplants in more animals, and I proposed to expand our sophisticated, functional research with research on the Groningen canine islet transplants.

Later that month, Oct 1991, islet perifusion experiments with the gut hormone GLP-1 were started (13,14,15).

And… November 1991, Paul van Suylichem’s research associate Annemiek Weemaes brought the Groningen canine transplants to Leiden, for our very successful collaborative project , with the planned additional studies in the combined Leiden and Groningen group of transplants, examining additionally insulin action (sensitivity) and the ‘incretin’ effect (stimulation of insulin secretion) of the gut hormone GLP-1. Experiments we completed in 1992 (14,16,17,18).

Notes

IMAGE 20250103_1
Islets isolated April 18, 1989 using the UW-Solution • Miracles.Media • 20250103_1 • TakeNode eeb55729-c02b-4f73-ab0e-9f71b65bf85e

1) Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/pancreatic-islet-isolation-with-uw-solution-a-new-concept-20241224/

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) Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250103 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/03/

4) Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20240911 • TakeNode fdf6f65c-28b7-4936-8c23-83225e6f2ff0 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/09/11/

IMAGE 20240911
Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20240911 • TakeNode fdf6f65c-28b7-4936-8c23-83225e6f2ff0

5) Islet Transplantation Breakthrough in Leiden University Hospital • 20240830 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/08/30/

6) Entero Insular Axis • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/23/

IMAGE 20250125_1
Autotransplantation of islets in the spleen • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_1 • Left : Canine pancreas with two cannulas in the pancreatic ducts (for infusion of collagenase solution) , with the blood vessels clamped at the time of removal of the gland. Not shown here : After removal of the gland the collagenase solution is infused , and the pancreatic islets are isolated within a few hours. Right : Next the purified islets are returned by infusion in the spleen of the same animal (auto-transplantation). Drawings by medical artist J. Wetselaar-Whittaker — with my hand posing for the injection drawing ;) • TakeNode da74e6a2-e21d-4690-afe5-356949221658

IMAGE 20250125_2
Spring meeting 1990 of the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology, Veldhoven, Netherlands • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_2 • TakeNode 65cb9de6-a111-4636-8766-d586b001d73e

7) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Jansen JBMJ, Lamers CBHW, Scherft JP, Gooszen HG.
Contribution of gut factors to canine isolated islet function? Spring meeting of the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology (NVGE), Veldhoven (The Netherlands) March 23–24, 1990. The proceedings pdf (1MEMO_20250125_2) is available for download below.

1MEMO_20250125_2🔗Download

Five years later the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology awarded the Glaxo Wellcome Gastrointestinal Research Award for this research (Ph.D. thesis “Pancreatic islet transplantation”) at the Fall meeting of the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology (NVGE), Veldhoven, The Netherlands, October 5, 1995).

Glaxo Wellcome Gastroenterology Research Award, Oct 5, 1995, Dutch Society for Gastroenterology, Veldhoven, Netherlands • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_4 • TakeNode 3152bca6-c98e-4900-89bf-d3e241f14405

8) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ploeg RJ, Scherft JP, Bruijn JA, Frölich M, Prins FA, Gooszen HG. Successful canine pancreatic islet transplantation using ViaSpan. 3rd Symposium Experimental Surgical Research (SEOHS), Leiden (The Netherlands) October 8, 1990.

9) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Ploeg RJ, Guicherit OR, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Frölich M. Over 90% purified canine isolated pancreatic islets using UW solution (Abstract). Neth J Surg 1990; 42: 30. Pdf abstract (1MEMO_20250125_5) is available for download below.

1MEMO_20250125_5🔗Download

10) Leiden Islet Laboratory History • 20240803 | Michel van der Burg | URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/08/03/

11) Cradle of Islet Transplants • 20240829 • Michel van der Burg • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/08/29/

12) Percoll UWS Purification Pancreatic Islets • ESOT 1991 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250114 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/14/

IMAGE 20250125_3
Paul van Suylichem (Groningen Islet Team) in Leiden Islet Laboratory, October 8, 1990 • Photo by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125_3 • TakeNode e8ce7630-4e75-402b-a4c2-9b007a8dd61b

13) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Terpstra JL, Gooszen HG. Functie na intralienale transplantatie van eilandjes van Langerhans in de hond ( Function after intrasplenic transplantation of islets of Langerhans in dogs ). Surgeon days ’92 of the Dutch Surgery Society, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) May 21–22, 1992. In : Gut factors controlling pancreatic islets • 20240910 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com

14) 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. URL Thesis Repository Leiden University https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3486604

15) van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Insulinotropic effects of cholecystokinin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 during perifusion of short-term cultured canine isolated islets. Regul Pept. 1995 Dec 7;60(1):61-7. doi: 10.1016/0167-0115(95)00122-4. PMID: 8747785.

16) Van der Burg MPM, Van Suylichem PTR, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Lemkes HHPJ, Gooszen HG. Glycemic control mechanisms after canine islet autografting. 5th International Congress on Pancreas and Islet Transplantation (IPITA), Miami Beach (USA) June 18–22, 1995.

17) van der Burg MPM, van Suylichem PTR, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Lemkes HHPJ, Gooszen HG. Glycemic control mechanisms after canine islet autografting. Transplant Proc. 1995 Dec;27(6):3187-8. PMID: 8539903. Download (PMID_8539903) below .

PMID_8539903🔗Download

18) van der Burg MPM, van Suylichem PTR, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Lemkes HHPJ, Gooszen HG. Glucoregulation after canine islet transplantation: contribution of insulin secretory capacity, insulin action, and the entero-insular axis. Cell Transplant. 1997 Sep-Oct;6(5):497-503. doi: 10.1177/096368979700600509. PMID: 9331501. Download Free PDF https://hdl.handle.net/11370/59231eab-6091-415d-8b2b-4e5e6508a978

Citation info : Dutch Islet Transplants Team • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250125 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/25/

Transplants of UW-Isolated Islets • Transplantation Society 1990 Paper • @1MEMO 20250118

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

PMID_1990691🔗Download

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/

Percoll UWS Purification Pancreatic Islets • ESOT 1991 Talk • @1MEMO 20250114

Percoll UWS Purification Pancreatic Islets • ESOT 1991 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250114 • TakeNode 459d71fd-069f-4f6d-9c8f-924ebf132222

Two years, after we introduced the UW-Solution ( UWS ) as the islet isolation solution at the 4th ESOT meeting (1,2) , this talk on the innovative Percoll-UWS density gradient for the purification of canine and human pancreatic islets, was presented at the 5th ESOT — Wednesday Oct 9 , 1991, at 2 PM at the 5th ESOT meeting in Maastricht, Netherlands (3) .

That 5th ESOT meeting was recorded on tape by Audio Archives Int. I purchased some tapes, including the tape of that afternoon session that had started with my talk — and found that the taping of this session had started a few minutes too late … during my talk, the moment I started presenting the Results.

That original tape is now included in this remastered slideshow of my talk presented in this video (20250114) here , starting at 2 min 51 sec.
Audio of the first part of my speech , missing in the original 5th ESOT tape, I have recorded this week (from the handout of the speech, written out at full lenght) and added as a voice over at the start of this remastered slideshow.

Cassette Tapes , Audio Archives Int, 5th ESOT • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250114_2 • TakeNode 97730a39-b3db-4f56-a08a-77c4d0406be0

Background

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.

We demonstrated in 1989, that the use of the UW-Solution ( UWS ) for isolation of canine pancreatic islets prior to ‘conventional’ dextran gradient purification, consistently results in a greatly improved purification outcome, of >90% purified islets, and successful transplantation of the canine islets.

Thus , the UWS was used as the isolation solution both before , and after the purification of islets — but not yet during the purification step, during centrifugation of the pancreatic tissue in a density gradient.

A conventional (Hanks’ balanced salts) solution was still being used for preparing density gradients with dextran in our laboratory.

Following our islet transplants series June-August 1989 , next a working visit in Minneapolis Sep-Oct ’89, and presentations at the Nov ’89 ESOT congress in Barcelona , we had started a new series of islet isolation experiments from December 1989.

During the first two isolations, Dec 1989, of this new series, I wondered whether the dextran gradient could be optimized , for example by layering the islet suspension in UWS (the pancreatic digest suspension) on top of the dextran bottom layer, or perhaps layering the digest on top of a bottom layer of dextran dissolved in UWS…

The new , much shorter, Labcraft density hydrometers, I had purchased during the Minneapolis visit Nov. 1989 , would greatly facilitate designing new density gradients.

The same lot of dextran (Sigma’s industrial-grade dextran) had been used for all these studies. That stock ran out, so a switch was made Jan 2, 1990 to using a new batch of that dextran powder, resulting however in a significantly impaired recovery of islets during purification (4).

Thus, designing a new density gradient became urgent January 1990.

Dextran-UWS Gradient • First density gradient in UW-Solution

March 1990 , new density gradient research was started during islet isolation , splitting the suspension of digested pancreatic tissue (‘digest’) for comparison of different density gradients, of either Sigma’s dextran, and Pharmacia’s essentially pure dextran T70 product in Hanks’ solution … and also the first ‘UW gradient’ tested : a dextran gradient in UW-Solution (4).

Percoll-UWS • Successful density gradient in UW-Solution

From April 1990, dextran T70 was used also in dextran-UW gradients, and islet purification research was further extended that month, by designing a density gradient of Percoll in UW Solution, and from May 1990, designing a Pentastarch-UW gradient. Posters on these new density gradients in UWS were presented June 1991 at the 3rd IPITA Congress in Lyon, France (4,5,6).

The paper presented in this 5th ESOT talk, was presented the next year (1992) again in full detail in a poster at the 1st meeting of the Cell Transplant Society in Pittsburgh , and a remastered edition was posted online recently (7).

Proceedings paper below (8).

Slides originally created on a Macintosh computer October 1991, using the MacDraw II application, with graphs from Cricket Graph. Those 1991 files were remastered this month using LibreOffice, as well as the likewise produced Pittsburgh poster for this video of the 5th ESOT talk.
Handout speech and report files originally created in the Mac Desk Accessory ‘Acta’, currently accessed by Opal.

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) 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) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Prins FA, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Percoll in UW: efficient iso-osmotic canine and human islet purification. 5th Congres European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) October 7–10, 1991.

4) Dextran UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250104 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/04/

5) Percoll UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240731 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

6) PentaStarch UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240802 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

7) Pittsburgh 1992 Cell Transplant Society • 20240812 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

8) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA, Gooszen HG. Islet preservation during isolation: a new concept in cell transplantation. Transplant Proc. 1992 Dec;24(6):2840-1. PMID: 1465965. PDF available below
PMID_1465965 🔗

End Card

5th Congres European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) October 9, 1991 14:00

0:07 Photo taken at 4th ESOT in Barcelona, 1989 (two years earlier)

0:06-2:51 Voice Over Michel van der Burg • Recorded Jan 11th, 2025 • Substitute for audio missing in original tape recording

2:51 Start Original Audio Tape 5th ESOT session by Audio Archives Int

6:52 Start Discussion • Chair : Reinout van Schilfgaarde (Groningen, Netherlands) • With contributions by Bernhard Hering (Giessen, Germany), R. Seelis (Edmonton, Canada), Derek Gray (Oxford, UK), and Reinout van Schilfgaarde (Groningen, Netherlands).

Citation info : Percoll UWS Purification Pancreatic Islets • ESOT 1991 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250114 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/14/

Dextran Density Purification Of Pancreatic Islets • @1MEMO 20250104

Dextran Poster 3rd IPITA 1991 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250104_1 • TakeNode 1c05b2a5-de41-4185-b304-fee2335100f3

Poster (remastered edition, 2025) presented at the 3rd IPITA Congress, June 1991, in Lyon, France (1). One of three posters presented at this congress on purification during the isolation of pancreatic islets (1,2,3,4).

Background

Purification during the isolation of pancreatic islets was greatly improved in 1989 by replacing the conventional islet isolation solutions with the UW organ preservation solution.

The UW-Solution was used as the isolation solution both before , and after the purification of islets — but not yet during the purification step, during centrifugation of the pancreatic tissue in a density gradient.

A conventional (Hanks’ balanced salts) solution was used for preparing density gradients with dextran, the Minneapolis method introduced in 1988 in our laboratory (5).

We had demonstrated previously, that the use of the UW organ preservation solution for isolation of canine pancreatic islets prior to dextran gradient purification, consistently results in >90% purified islets. Further 4 out of 5 islet transplants purified using this gradient had been successful.

During the first two isolations, Dec 1989, of this new series, I wondered whether the dextran gradient could be optimized , for example by layering the islet suspension in UW-Solution (the pancreatic digest suspension) on top of the dextran bottom layer, or perhaps layering the digest on top of a bottom layer of dextran dissolved in UW-Solution…

The new , much shorter, Labcraft density hydrometers, I had purchased during the Minneapolis visit Nov. 1989 , would greatly facilitate designing new density gradients.

Thus, designing a new density gradient became urgent January 1990.

Dextran UW Gradient • First density gradient in UW-Solution

March 6, 1990 , new density gradient research was started during islet isolation , splitting the suspension of digested pancreatic tissue (‘digest’) for comparison of either dextran of Ficoll (a similar product) in Hanks’ solution , and also a dextran gradient in UW-Solution – the first ‘UW gradient’…

Later that month, purification research was started with a different, essentially pure, dextran product : ‘dextran T70′ from Pharmacia, in Hanks’ solution — with results reported in the poster here.

Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Sigma’s industrial grade dextran is not suitable for islet isolation. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.

2) Dextran UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20250104 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

3) Percoll UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240731 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

4) PentaStarch UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240802 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

5) Pancreas & Islet Transplantation Program • 20240912 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

Citation info : Dextran UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250104 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/04/

Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • @1MEMO 20250103

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).

Notes

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/

Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • @1MEMO 20241229

Oral Presentation Slide 19 ~ Pure Islets Isolated in UW Solution • Miracles.Media • 20241229_1 • TakeNode ce420e5a-1df7-4e4f-bcb6-6831434ffac7

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

20241229_3 🔗Download

Handout Page 1 • 20241229_3 • Miracles.Media

Speech Excerpts

…

( 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

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

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.

…

Notes

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/

Author Proof Edition • @1MEMO 20241228

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Below the update today added in the 20241224 post : Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/pancreatic-islet-isolation-with-uw-solution-a-new-concept-20241224/

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/