RESUMO
Islet transplantation is a potential cure for type 1 diabetes, but clinical results have been disappointing. Currently, islet isolation is by enzymatic digestion of the pancreas which has significant pitfalls: warm ischemia exposure, collagenase-induced damage to the islet mass and viability, poor reproducibility, high cost, a relatively low number of islets obtained per whole pancreas, and selection of islets for collagenase resistance rather than for glucose responsiveness. In the present study we performed a series of experiments in a porcine model to demonstrate the feasibility of a new isolation method based on selective osmotic shock (SOS) using very high glucose solutions, doubling or tripling physiological osmotic strength. The SOS method can be carried out at room temperature or in the cold eliminating warm ischemia time which damages the islets. The SOS method does not depend on the texture of the pancreas so all pancreases can be processed identically and the process can be fully automated. The SOS method isolates all the islets of the pancreas regardless of size and shape allowing a greater number of islets to be harvested. The SOS method avoids exposure to toxins in collagenase solutions, is inexpensive and selects for islets with high concentrations of Glut 2 transporters, representing the best glucose responding islets. The SOS method showed a comparable recovery of islets from young pig pancreas and the islets showed improved viability. We conclude that the selective osmotic shock (SOS) method of separating islets from the pancreatic tissue is superior to the collagenase method.
Assuntos
Ilhotas Pancreáticas/citologia , Ilhotas Pancreáticas/fisiologia , Animais , Morte Celular , Separação Celular/métodos , Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 1/tratamento farmacológico , Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 1/cirurgia , Glucose/farmacologia , Transportador de Glucose Tipo 2/análise , Humanos , Hipoglicemiantes/uso terapêutico , Insulina/metabolismo , Insulina/uso terapêutico , Secreção de Insulina , Células Secretoras de Insulina/imunologia , Células Secretoras de Insulina/patologia , Ilhotas Pancreáticas/efeitos dos fármacos , Ilhotas Pancreáticas/metabolismo , Transplante das Ilhotas Pancreáticas , Pressão Osmótica , SuínosRESUMO
The PAX6 gene is expressed at high levels in the developing eye and cerebellum and is mutated in patients with autosomal dominant aniridia. We have tested the role of PAX6 mutations in three families with Gillespie syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive condition consisting of partial aniridia, cerebellar ataxia, and mental retardation. Single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis of affected individuals revealed no alteration of PAX6 sequences. In two families, the disease trait segregates independently from chromosome 11p markers flanking PAX6. We conclude that Gillespie syndrome is genetically distinct from autosomal dominant aniridia.
Assuntos
Aniridia/genética , Ataxia Cerebelar/genética , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Genes , Proteínas de Homeodomínio , Deficiência Intelectual/genética , Alelos , Aniridia/classificação , Sequência de Bases , Brasil , Análise Mutacional de DNA , Proteínas do Olho , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Irlanda do Norte , Fator de Transcrição PAX6 , Fatores de Transcrição Box Pareados , Linhagem , Polimorfismo Genético , Proteínas Repressoras , SíndromeRESUMO
Heat-stable enterotoxin I (STI) can be assayed in intestinal loops of pigs and rabbits and in the gut of infant mice. To produce a simpler and more discriminating assay procedure, we used three gene probes corresponding to three forms of STI called STIa, STIb, and STIc. We tested 159 Brazilian isolates, of which 40 were positive in the infant mouse assay. The STIb and STIc probes are similar (93% DNA homology) and are both different from the STIa probe (70% DNA homology). Of 33 strains that were still active for STI 3 years after their isolation, 25 reacted with both the STIb and STIc probes, 4 reacted with the STIc probe only, and 7 reacted strongly with the STIa probe and weakly or not at all with the other probes. Two strains reacted with all three probes. Further analysis showed that each of these two strains contains a small plasmid that reacts with the STIa probe and a large plasmid that reacts with the STIc probe in one strain and weakly with both the STIa and STIc probes in the other strain. It was also shown that the STIa probe reacts with the cloning vehicle pACYC184 used for the cloning of STIc. We conclude that the gene probes used can identify most STI-producing strains and that in cases of positive responses with several probes careful scrutiny is necessary for analysis.