Objective: 

Pancreatic islet transplantation is an emerging therapy for diabetes mellitus. The effective use of limited number of available islets is required for successful islet transplantation. However, there are some problems that are usually related with high apoptotic changes in the islets during in vitro culture period. To improve successful culture without loss of islet cell and their function, we planned to add caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, to culture medium.

Methods: 

Male Wistar Albino rats were used to isolate islets. The pancreas was digested with collagenase V and the purification was performed with ficoll-1077. Following isolation, islets were cultured in three different mediums for 24 hours. The equal IEQ numbers of islets were cultured with three different mediums. The mediums were RPMI-1640/FBS without CAPE or DMSO, with %0.1 DMSO and with 10 mM CAPE. The viability was examined with florescein diacetate (FDA) and propidium iodine (PI). Insulin secretion was assessed by stimulation with low and high glucose containing medium.

Results: 

The islets showed more than 90% purity in CAPE medium. The viability of CAPE treated islets (73.3%) was greater than the controls (64.3%). The insulin concentrations in low glucose were 0.77, 0.73 and 3.08 ng/IEQ in control, DMSO and CAPE mediums, respectively. The high glucose induced insulin secretion with concentration of 2.38, 1.74 and 6.50 ng/IEQ in control, DMSO and CAPE mediums, respectively. The CAPE treated islets showed higher insulin secretion capability.

Conclusions: 

It has been concluded that CAPE containing medium may protect islets from apoptosis and function loss before transplantation procedure.