Abstract
Both fetal and adult human pancreatic tissues were digested with collagenase, and the resulting cell clumps, including isolated islets, were cultured with Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (D-MEM) containing 10 fetal bovine serum (FBS) in a CO2 incubator gassed with 5 % CO2 in air. Cells became attached to the bottoms of the petri dishes and formed cell sheets after 3 days. Most epithelial cells in the monolayer were positively stained with aldehyde fuchsin and were maintained for about 2 weeks.
Insulin release in the fetal culture on the 3rd day was 1.3 times for 3 mg/ml glucose, 3.5 times for 150 μg/m1 tolbutamide and 7.8 times for 10 mM theo-phylline, as compared to that of 1 mg/ml glucose. However, in the adult cul-ture, the stimulus of glucose, tolbutamide and theophylline resulted in equal increases in insulin release of about 5 to 6 times. These results indicate that the cell function, characteristic of fetal and adult human islets in vivo, is preserved in culture.
In the fetal culture, the insulin response to glucose tended to increase on the 14th day, whereas the response to theophylline and tolbutamide decreased, evidence of the possible development of a B cell function in the culture.
