Diazoxide Preconditioning of Nonhuman Primate Pancreas Improves Islet Isolation Outcomes by Mitochondrial Protection

Previously, we showed that diazoxide (DZ), an effective ischemic preconditioning agent, protected rodent pancreas against ischemia-reperfusion injury. Here, we further investigate whether DZ supplementation to University of Wisconsin (UW) solution during pancreas procurement and islet isolation has similar cytoprotection in a preclinical nonhuman primate model.

Cynomolgus monkey pancreata were flushed with UW or UW + 150 μM DZ during procurement and preserved for 8 hours before islet isolation.

First, a significantly higher islet yield was observed in UW + DZ than in UW (57,887 vs 23,574 IEq/pancreas and 5396 vs 1646 IEq/g). Second, the DZ treated islets had significantly lower apoptotic cells per islet (1.64% vs 9.85%). Third, DZ significantly inhibited ROS surge during reperfusion with a dose-response manner. Fourth, DZ improved in vitro function of isolated islets determined by mitochondrial potentials and calcium influx in responses to glucose and KCI. Fifth, the DZ treated islets had much higher cure rate and better glycemia control in diabetic mice transplant model.

This study showed a strong mitochondrial protection of DZ on nonhuman primate islets against ischemia-reperfusion injury that provides strong evidence for its clinical application in islet and pancreas transplantation.