DRI Dream Team • Miami 1998 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250105_1 • TakeNode e6258505-55a8-4365-bb70-7a1dcd7b5426
Team up with researchers at the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami , working on human islet transplantation (1).
“For National Geographic” announced Camillo Ricordi for fun, that Monday , April 27th in 1998 at the Diabetes Research Institute, when the DRI islet isolation team posed in GMP outfit for this picture (2) — with Elina Linetsky on the left , and me standing second from right — taken after finishing our human islet isolation work, including islet purification in the iodixanol gradient in UW-Solution (3).
Notes
1) Working visit April – May 1998 at the “fast track” center of the Diabetes Research Institute (Scientific director Prof. C. Ricordi, MD) of the University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA)
2) Blown up image (from small GIF online in the early DRInet days), taken through a reflecting window.
3) Human Islet Purification Miami 1998 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20181102 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2018/11/02/
Citation info : DRI Dream Team • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250105 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/05/
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.
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 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.
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 , as shown in the poster shown here.
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.
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 (3), and from May 1990, designing a Pentastarch-UW gradient (4).
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/
The effect of gut hormones together with glucose on the insulin secretion capacity of isolated islets tested during storage of the islets in the laboratory, and after transplantation.
CCK and GIP control of canine isolated islet function.
Poster (1) presented at the 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
The poster was originally designed and produced on a Macintosh computer and Imagewriter dotmatrix printer, June 3, 1991, using the MacDraw II application, with graphs from Cricket Graph. That 1991 Mac file was remastered today in LibreOffice Vanilla.
Notes
1. Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ebert R, Jansen JBMJ, Creutzfeld W, Lamers CBHW, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. CCK and GIP control of canine isolated islet function. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
Citation info : Gut feelings of pancreatic islets • 20240906 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode 5e52cddc-469d-4f91-bd23-e833566be41e
Percoll UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification (20240731) now has a remastered poster image , see below.
Lyon 1991 Percoll Poster | 20240731 • 20240808
20240808 – remastered poster : Following the first publication here last month (20240731) of the original 1991 MacDraw poster opened (converted) in LibreOffice Vanilla (1), I learned how to do some editing in the LibreOffice app to further restore poster layout details such as line spacing, and font style. An archive photo of another poster presentation in Pittsburgh in 1992 (that will be posted here soon) guided this restoration.
Current workflow : 1) opening the MacDraw II file in LibreOffice Vanilla 2) editing in in LibreOffice Vanilla , saving as LibreOffice Vanilla file (OpenDocument Drawing – extension odg). 3) opening the photo tiff image in the Mac’s Preview app, and copying the displayed image to the clipboard 4) pasting the clipboard image in the LibreOffice doc , and dragging to adjust size and location 5) exporting the file as PDF (image resolution 300 DPI ; PDF/A-1b ; PDF/UA). 6) Converting the PDF in the Preview app to TIFF 144 pixels/inch. 7) Adding caption , metadata etc with JPEG conversion in PhotoMill.
The 20240731 post now has this updated 20240808 – poster image.
Citation info : Lyon 1991 Percoll Poster | 20240731 • 20240808 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode 8cd3161a-2405-4586-aaeb-08096e1a636e
Following first introduction of the use UWS (the UW organ preservation solution) for pancreatic islet isolation in 1989 , next also purification of the islets in UWS was presented in 1991, with two options.
One option was an iso-osmotic density gradient solution of Percoll in UWS. The second option was a density gradient solution created by increasing the Pentastarch concentration in UWS (7) . Note that Pentastarch is a component of UWS.
The Percoll-UWS poster was posted recently (8)
Here the remastered poster presentation on Pentastarch-UWS :
Pentastarch in UW (SUW): a new method for complete islet purification. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
The poster was designed and produced on my personal Macintosh computer and Imagewriter dotmatrix printer, the night of June 3-4, 1991, using the MacDraw II application.
The Apple Imagewriter-II matrix printer, allows printing landscape across a chain of several sheets of paper, strips, the width of the poster (here 3 sheets long). The strips of the poster (here 3 strips) were then glued on site along the perforation, creating the 36/24 inch poster.
Finally the photo print of the purified islets was pasted in the poster at the spot at the venue in Lyon. In Lyon a photo of a dithizone stained Pentastarch purified islet sample was shown. To save time the archive was not searched for that image, and another image of Pentastarch purified islets was inserted in this remastered edition, a reflection contrast micrograph of an ultrathin section of Pentastarch purified islets immuno-stained with gold on insulin in the islet cells.
Nowadays, it is a challenge opening such old Mac files … Luckily, I was able to open this MacDraw II poster file in LibreOffice Vanilla and now learned to use the app to further correct most conversion issues. Pixelmator Pro was used for additional ‘repair’ and insertion of the photo scan.
2. 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. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
3. Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ploeg RJ, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Pentastarch in UW (SUW): a new method for complete islet purification. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
4. 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.
5. Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ebert R, Jansen JBMJ, Creutzfeld W, Lamers CBHW, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. CCK and GIP control of canine isolated islet function. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
7. Pentastarch is the synthetic colloid component of UWS (ViaSpan / Belzer solution), a purified fraction (250 kD) of hydroxyethyl starch. Pentastarch powder was used here to increase the Pentastarch concentration and density of the UWS.
8. Percoll UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240731 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com
Citation info : PentaStarch UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240802 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode d11f1cef-a343-4466-8814-3e52a0261cae
Lyon 1991 Percoll Poster | 20240731 • 20240808 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode 8cd3161a-2405-4586-aaeb-08096e1a636e
Following first introduction of the use UWS (the UW organ preservation solution) for pancreatic islet isolation in 1989 , next also purification of the islets in UWS was presented in 1991, with two options. One option was an iso-osmotic density gradient solution of Percoll in UWS. The second option was a density gradient solution created by increasing the Pentastarch concentration in UWS . Note that Pentastarch is a component of UWS.
Here one of these poster presentations, on Percoll-UWS : Percoll in UW: efficient iso-osmotic canine and human islet purification. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
The poster was designed and produced on my personal Macintosh computer and Imagewriter dotmatrix printer, the night of June 3-4, 1991, using the MacDraw II application, inserted with a bar graph prepared in the Cricket Graph app. The Apple Imagewriter-II matrix printer, allows printing landscape across a chain of several sheets of paper, strips, the width of the poster (here 3 sheets long). The strips of the poster (here 5 strips) were then glued on site along the perforation, creating a 36/41 inch poster. Finally the RCM photo print of the purified human islets was pasted in the poster at the spot at the venue in Lyon.
Nowadays, it is a challenge opening such old Mac files … Luckily, I was able to open this MacDraw II poster file in LibreOffice Vanilla (open source app) with nice results. Only minor issues appeared with text spacing of the top row of the table , and the caption in the photo section. Some color is showing in the graphs , not evident on my grayscale equipment in the 90s. …. The poster image of 20240731 has been replaced by a remastered image , see Note Update 20240808 below.
2. 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. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
3. Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ploeg RJ, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Pentastarch in UW (SUW): a new method for complete islet purification. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
4. 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.
5. Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ebert R, Jansen JBMJ, Creutzfeld W, Lamers CBHW, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. CCK and GIP control of canine isolated islet function. 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System, Lyon (France) June 6–8, 1991.
Following the first publication here last month (20240731) of the original 1991 MacDraw poster opened (converted) in LibreOffice Vanilla (1), I learned how to do some editing in the LibreOffice app to further restore poster layout details such as line spacing, and font style. An archive photo of another poster presentation in Pittsburgh in 1992 (that will be posted here soon) guided this restoration.
Current workflow : 1) opening the MacDraw II file in LibreOffice Vanilla 2) editing in in LibreOffice Vanilla , saving as LibreOffice Vanilla file (OpenDocument Drawing – extension odg). 3) opening the photo tiff image in the Mac’s Preview app, and copying the displayed image to the clipboard 4) pasting the clipboard image in the LibreOffice doc , and dragging to adjust size and location 5) exporting the file as PDF (image resolution 300 DPI ; PDF/A-1b ; PDF/UA). 6) Converting the PDF in the Preview app to TIFF 144 pixels/inch. 7) Adding caption , metadata etc with JPEG conversion in PhotoMill.
This 20240731 post now has this updated 20240808 – poster image.
Citation info : Percoll UWS Pancreatic Islet Purification • 20240731 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com
While reading in the novel “Rescue Run” – on a daring rescue across Nazi-occupied Europe (a not yet published book by John Winn Miller) – with an attempt to escape a bounty hunter in Lyon, France, by crossing the footbridge ‘Passerelle Saint Vincent’ across the Saône river…I remembered taking a photograph of long bridges in Lyon during a working visit early 90s.
Diving in my archive I found 16 pictures, including two with bridges, taken in the old city during my visit for presentations of my pancreatic islet research work at a meeting June 6–8, 1991 in Lyon (France) : the 3rd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Symposium on Artificial Insulin Delivery System.
Using Google street view I learned that indeed one of my images shows that old ‘Passerelle Saint Vincent’ footbridge over the Saône ;)
Citation info : Saint Vincent footbridge in Lyon | 20240726 | 1-memo•com | TakeNode bfd28571-c4d7-4b17-8680-01bc2c85e888
