Collecting high-quality pancreatic tissue for experimental study from organ donors with signs of beta-cell autoimmunity

: Tauriainen S, Salmela K, Rantala I, Knip M, Hyoty H

Publisher: JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

: 2010

: Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews

: DIABETES-METABOLISM RESEARCH AND REVIEWS

: DIABETES-METAB RES

: 26

: 7

: 585

: 592

: 8

: 1520-7552

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.1129

Background The aim of this study was to create a new research strategy
to obtain high-quality pancreatic tissues from subjects with preclinical or
clinical type 1 diabetes, which would open up new avenues for studying the
mechanisms of the β-cell damaging process in humans.
Research design and methods A nationwide collaboration network (the
PanFin network) was established in Finland to start an on-call screening
of diabetes-associated autoantibodies from deceased organ donors and
subsequent processing of pancreases from autoantibody-positive donors. This
protocol was integrated into the national organ transplantation procedure.
Results Only a few modifications were needed to the normal transplantation
practices. One additional blood sample was obtained from donors for
autoantibody analyses, the transplantation team was informed about the
autoantibody result and the pancreas of autoantibody-positive donors was
transported to the core laboratory. Altogether, 307 donors were screened and
22 (7.2%) were positive for at least one autoantibody and 3 tested positive
for two or more autoantibodies out of the five tested (islet cell antibodies,
insulin autoantibodies and autoantibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase,
islet antigen 2 and zinc transporter 8). The quality of collected pancreatic
tissue was superior to that from autopsies and allowed the detection of both
RNA and proteins.
Conclusions The study protocol was proven feasible to be carried out on a
nationwide scale. It did not interfere with the normal transplantation activities
and provided valuable tissue material for research. Copyright  2010 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd.