Interstrain Differences in CO2-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage in Mice.

Carbon dioxide is the most commonly used gas for euthanasia of rodents. The current AVMA Guidelines recommend slowly filling the container with CO2 (SF) and now indicate that the practice of placing conscious animals in containers prefilled with CO2 (PF) is unacceptable. An investigator noted pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) in BALB/c mice euthanized by SF that was not observed after PF.

Benefits and risks of solitary islet transplantation for type 1 diabetes using steroid-sparing immunosuppression: the National Institutes of Health experience.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the National Institutes of Health's experience initiating an islet isolation and transplantation center, including descriptions of our first six recipients, and lessons learned.

Research Design And Methods: Six females with chronic type 1 diabetes, hypoglycemia unawareness, and no endogenous insulin secretion (undetectable serum C-peptide) were transplanted with allogenic islets procured from brain dead donors. To prevent islet rejection, patients received daclizumab, sirolimus, and tacrolimus.

Pancreatic islet transplantation using the nonhuman primate (rhesus) model predicts that the portal vein is superior to the celiac artery as the islet infusion site.

We've established a nonhuman primate islet allotransplant model to address questions such as whether transplanting islets into the gut's arterial system would more safely and as effectively support long-term islet allograft survival compared with the traditional portal vein approach. We reasoned that islets make up <2% of pancreatic cell mass but consume an estimated 20% of arterial blood flow, suggesting an advantage for the arterial site. Access to the arterial system is also easier and safer than the portal system.