Improving function and survival of porcine islet xenografts using microencapsulation and culture preconditioning.

Introduction And Aims: Porcine pancreatic islets have been difficult to preserve because isolated porcine islets tend to disaggregate to single cells and lose function under culture conditions. In the current study, the influence of agarose microencapsulation on the maintenance of the number and function of islets in culture preservations and the effect of culture preconditioning of microencapsulated porcine islets on xenogenic transplantation were investigated.

Methodology: Porcine islets were isolated and then microencapsulated in 5% agarose membrane.