Purify

The islets are then diluted—to stop the enzyme-digestion process—and purified, using a continuous density gradient centrifugation.

“The pancreas has more than 1 million islet cells,” Szot says. “If we get 500,000 to 600,000 cells for a patient, we’re happy. That’s generally enough for patients to maintain normal glycemia.” At some islet transplanation centers, the teams harvest islets from two pancreases, in order to increase the number that will be transplanted. As it is difficult to find two pancreases to harvest at the same time, however, patients at UCSF who need more islet cells will generally have a second transplantation.