PMID: 11332627May 3, 2001Paper

Cell therapy for diabetes using piscine islet tissue

Cell Transplantation
J R Wright, B Pohajdak

Abstract

The islet tissue, called Brockmann bodies, in certain teleost fish is anatomically distinct from the pancreatic exocrine tissue and can be easily identified macroscopically. Expensive islet isolation procedures, such as required when procuring islet tissue from mammalian pancreases, are unnecessary. Tilapia islets transplanted into diabetic athymic nude mice will produce long-term normoglycemia and mammalian-like glucose tolerance profiles. Encapsulated tilapia islets function well after transplantation into euthymic recipients. Additionally, tilapia are potentially ideal xenogeneic donors because of markedly lower donor production costs, minimal islet procurement costs, and possibly decreased xenozoonotic potential relative to mammalian donors. Tilapia islets appear to be appropriately glucose responsive with high insulin output, can be cryopreserved, and are much more resistant to hypoxia than mammalian islets. Because tilapia and human insulin differ by 17 amino acids, we have cloned, sequenced, and modified the tilapia insulin gene by site-directed mutagenesis resulting in a tilapia insulin gene that codes for "humanized" insulin while still maintaining all of the tilapia regulatory (noncoding) sequences. We have now produc...Continue Reading

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