Expression data of islets between 3- and 7- day old pigs

The yield, cell composition, and function of islets isolated from various ages of neonatal pigs were characterized using in vitro and in vivo experimental models. Islets from 7- and 10-day old pigs showed significantly better function both in vitro and in vivo compared to islets from 3- and 5-day old pigs however, the islet yield from 10-day old pigs were significantly less than those obtained from the other pigs. Since islets from 3-day old pigs were used in our previous studies and islets from 7-day old pigs reversed diabetes more efficiently than islets from other groups, we further evaluated the function of these islets post-transplantation. B6 rag-/- mouse recipients of various numbers of islets from 7-day old pigs achieved normoglycemia faster and showed significantly improved response to glucose challenge compared to the recipients of the same numbers of islets from 3-dayold pigs. These results are in line with the findings that islets from 7-day-old pigs showed reduced voltage-dependent K+ (Kv) channel activity and their ability to recover from post-hypoxia/reoxygenation stress. Despite more resident immune cells and immunogenic characteristics detected in islets from 7-day old pigs compared to islets from 3-day old pigs, the combination of anti-LFA-1 and anti- CD154 monoclonal antibodies are equally effective at preventing the rejection of islets from both age groups of pigs. Collectively, these results suggest that islets from various ages of neonatal pigs vary in yield, cellular composition, and function. Such parameters may be considered when defining the optimal pancreas donor for islet xenotransplantation studies. Microarray data was used to look at immunogenic differences between 3-day and 7-day old neonatal pigs. Islets were isolated from pancreas tissue of 4 3-day old pigs and 4 7-day old pigs from which RNA was extracted. Microarrays were ran using Affymetrix® protocols, and analysis was done using GeneSpring and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software. Lowly expressed probes across all samples were excluded prior to the examining the differentially expressed probes between 3- and 7-day old pigs.