Shortly after starting our Islet Lab end 1986, I hand-picked and photographed this special big heart-shaped isolated islet of Langerhans with Uncle Scrooge McDuck’s ‘lucky #1 dime’ in mind.
(dutch : Dagobert Duck’s geluksdubbeltje). This ‘First Islet’ poster was pinned to the wall in my study in the (small) Islet Lab ‘wing’ in the Cell Biology building of the Leiden University Hospital.
It’s an Islet of Langerhans isolated from a rat pancreas. For pilot work, the first months while developing our islet project plan, islets were isolated from rat pancreases.
I had started developing our basic lab methods… like eg. measuring the insulin secretion capacity and insulin content of isolated islets. A custom-made glass pipet was used to hand-pick and transfer the islets to little polypropyleen ‘Eppendorf’ tubes for insulin secretion tests with glucose stimulation.
Citation info : Lucky #1 Islet • 20240811 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode 5234a6e0-4565-4167-bb46-0f922c0b1d2a
