[Harvesting of the rat pancreas with in-situ perfusion. A microsurgical technic]

One of the principal obstacles to pancreatic islet transplantation is the poor yield of islet from donor pancreas. Many techniques have been designed to increase the yield of islets. The influence of pancreas harvesting technique on islet isolation and function has received little attention. The authors report their experience about pancreas procurement in the rat using a multiorgan harvesting technique according to the original methods of Starzl in the human cadaver donors with in situ liver and pancreas flushing with U.W. solution. Sixty adult male Wistar rats weighting 100 gr. on average entered into our studies and underwent to different techniques of pancreas procurement. Our results demonstrate that the microsurgical multiorgan retrieval technique with in situ U.W. flushing via common iliac artery allows the best islets recovery with a larger number and more vital cells compared with the traditional exanguinatio technique, though it is more expensive and time consuming.