Improving Purified Islet Viability by Continuous Quadrupole Magnetic Separation (QMS)

Islet transplantation (ITx) is a minimally-invasive alternative to whole pancreas transplant for patients with uncontrolled type 1 diabetes. The islet isolation and purification process requires enzymatic digestion, mechanical agitation and the use of damaging chemicals for density gradient separation (COBE), all of which inflict substantial damage reducing viable islet yield. Quadrupole magnetic sorting (QMS) during digestion has been explored as an alternative for islet purification to reduce warm ischemia, minimize enzyme exposure and eliminate the use of density gradients. We explored the use of QMS for islet purification and compared the viability of QMS and COBE purified islets. We conclude that continuous islet purification by QMS can reduce the detrimental effects of prolonged exposure to toxic enzymes and density gradient solutions and substantially improve islet isolation efficiency and ITx success.