Isolation of pancreatic islets from dogs. Semiautomated purification on albumin gradients.

We describe a procedure for the isolation of large numbers of canine pancreatic islets with a high level of purity. The method utilizes enzymatic and mechanical disruption of the pancreas, followed by islet purification on discontinuous density gradients of bovine serum albumin. Purification has been semiautomated through use of the Cobe 2991 cell processor. Islet preparations have a purity of 86.5% and contain 36.8 microliters of endocrine tissue. Islets isolated by this procedure are functionally intact, and restore fasting euglycemia following autotransplantation.