Porcine islets were isolated from modern farm pigs.
Pancreata are harvested, distended with University of Wisconsin (UW) solution, and digested with Liberase DL (2 ml /g tissue) in a modified Ricordi chamber. Islets are separated from non-islet pancreatic tissue using UW/OptiPrep density gradient (1.100 and 1.060 g/cm3) on a COBE 2991 cell processor. Isolated porcine islets are cultured in M199 medium with pig serum (10%).