Normalization of diabetes by xenotransplantation of cryopreserved microencapsulated pancreatic islets. Application of a new strategy in islet banking.

To develop a requisite islet bank for the clinical implementation of an injectable bioartificial endocrine pancreas, microencapsulated islets were cryopreserved and assessed both in vitro by static glucose challenge and in a transplantation study. The insulin response of cryopreserved encapsulated rat islets was comparable with fresh islets. Transplantation of 800-900 banked rat islets resulted in the normalization of the metabolic blood glucose perturbation, body weight, and general health characteristics in 8 out of 8 diabetic mice for the study duration of 90 days. Whereas free islets are easily fragmented and lost during the freezing process, the capsule protects the fragile islets from freezing damage, increasing the retrieval rate from 79.5 +/- 9.8% to 97.2 +/- 1.3.