Are organ preservation solutions useful for the storage of isolated human islets?

Clinical islet transplantation invariably requires more than one donor per recipient. Delay between transplants could be reduced if islets were stored and transported between centers. This study assessed viability and response to glucose of isolated human islets after storage in tissue culture medium (TCM) 199 at 30 degrees C (control), TCM 199 at 22 degrees C (RT), University of Wisconsin solution @ 4 degrees C (UW), or Eurocollins Solution at 4 degrees C (EC) and compared 18 hours storage (group 1) or overnight culture followed by 4 hours storage (group 2). Insulin stimulation index (SI) (mean +/- SD, n = 5), after 1 hour glucose static challenge was not significantly different (P >.05) from islets in group 1 stored in RT 1.76 +/- 1.08 or EC 1.14 +/- 0.29 versus control 2.41 +/- 1.13 or group 2, RT 1.73 +/- 0.51, EC 2.07 +/- 0.63 versus control 2.12 +/- 0.58. However, SI UW was significantly lower (P <.05) than the control in group 1 (1.19 +/- 0.30) and group 2 (1.36 +/- 0.34). Islet viability represented by the ATP/ADP ratio (mean +/- SD, n = 5) was not significantly different after storage in RT 0.201 +/- 0.159; EC 0.205 +/- 0.123; or UW 0.611 +/- 0.992 versus the control 0.223 +/- 0.158 in group 1, and RT 0.178 +/- 0.055; EC 0.137 +/- 0.018; or UW 0.173 +/- 0.085, compared with the control 0.199 +/- 0.069 in group 2. We conclude, organ preservation solutions EC and UW do not have an advantage over TCM 199 for the storage of isolated human islets.