Islet Transplantation LUMC News Surprise • @1MEMO 20251020

Diabetic (dutch ‘Suikerzieke) … Parool, 6 Jan 1990 • @1MEMO 20251020

Big surprise today , to encounter this nice news article by journalist Rob van Dijk reporting on our pancreatic islet transplantation breakthrough in the Leiden University Hospital (now LUMC) in the Amsterdam based Dutch national newspaper Parool , Saturday 6 January 1990 (1).

I was searching actually for a better copy of a different news article I have archived on my clinical islet transplantation work (Newspaper Volkskrant 10 April 1999) in the Delpher archive of the National Library of the Netherlands , scrolling the search results, and noticed this Parool article – I didn’t know it existed 😉

Journalist Rob van Dijk did not interview me for the Parool, so I assume his source was the interview I gave for publication in Cicero, the biweekly LUMC publication, and the Dutch newspaper ‘Leidsch Dagblad’, and posted a year ago (2).

The articles reports (my translation from dutch*) :

Transplantation

Islet transplantation has been possible for a few years now, but it doesn’t (yet?) work in humans. The technique itself isn’t that complicated: as many islets of Langerhans as possible are extracted from a pancreas, injected into the diabetic patient’s liver or spleen, and thus, start producing insulin. However, that “thus” is still a bit tricky… …
The major problems lie in the fact that the yield of properly functioning islets is too small (at least 30 percent of the islets must be obtained undamaged to achieve sufficient insulin production after a transplant) and that the suspensions are too impure. Nevertheless, progress is being made.
The best news comes from Leiden University Hospital. There, biologist M. van der Burg, MSc has developed a method to isolate a very high and pure yield of islets from a dog’s pancreas. Van der Burg succeeded in isolating 40 percent of the vital islets from a dog’s pancreas. Through special processing, he was able to completely purify these cell clumps of 90 percent of excess and complicating pancreatic tissue. These islets were injected into the spleen of the same dog, where they produced sufficient insulin. This initial experiment has since been repeated in Leiden with several dogs with the same success. However, major challenges remain, not the least of which is the rejection problem. The Leiden experiments used the dog’s own tissue. The big question remains how the human immune system reacts when islets from a donor are injected.

*NL (dutch) quote :

Transplantatie

Sinds een paar jaar is eilandjestransplantatie wel mogelijk, alleen, bij de mens werkt het (nog?) niet. De techniek is op zichzelf niet zo ingewikkeld: men haalt zoveel mogelijk eilandjes van Langerhans uit een pancreas, spuit die bij de suikerzieke in lever of milt in en dan gaan ze dus insuline maken. Met dat ‘dus’ ligt het echter nog moeilijk… …
De grote problemen schuilen hem erin dat de oogst aan goed werkende eilandjes te gering is (men moet ten minste 30 procent van de eilandjes onbeschadigd te pakken krijgen om na een transplantatie voldoende insulineproduktie te verkrijgen) en dat de suspensies te onzuiver zijn. Toch zit er schot in.
Het beste nieuws komt uit het academisch ziekenhuis te Leiden. Daar heeft de bioloog drs. M. van der Burg een methode ontwikkeld om uit een hondepancreas een zeer hoge en zuivere oogst aan eilandjes te isoleren. Van der Burg slaagde erin uit de alvleesklier van een hond 40 procent van de vitale eilandjes te isoleren, door een speciale bewerking kon hij deze celklompjes voor 90 procent absoluut zuiveren van overbodig en complicerend pancreasweefsel. Deze eilandjes werden ingespoten in de milt van dezelfde hond en produceren daar voldoende insuline. Dit eerste experiment is in Leiden intussen met meerdere honden met hetzelfde succes herhaald. Maar er zijn nog grote problemen op te lossen en bepaald niet het geringste daarvan is dat van de afstoting. Bij de Leidse experimenten werd gebruik gemaakt van eigen weefsel van de hond. De grote vraag blijft hoe het immuunsysteem van de mens reageert als er eilandjes van een donor worden ingespoten.

Notes

1) Transplantatie. “Het Parool”. Amsterdam, 06-01-1990. Retrieved in Delpher on 20-10-2025, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ABCDDD:010834140:mpeg21:p017

2) Islet Transplantation Breakthrough in Leiden University Hospital • 20240830 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/08/30/islet-transplantation-breakthrough-in-leiden-university-hospital-20240830/

Citation info : Islet Transplantation LUMC News Surprise • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20251020 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/10/20/

Xeno Islets • @1MEMO 20250113

Pig Islet Isolation, Fondation Transplantation, Strasbourg 1992 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250113_1 • TakeNode b1f66781-cf63-4e64-a7b3-24cbdf5c107f

For the xenotransplantation research we started in 1991 at our Leiden Surgery Department, I studied pig islet isolation during a working visit February 1992, at the ‘Fondation Transplantation’ in Strasbourg-Hautepierre, France — here watching our student Vincent Nieuwenhuijs (left) at work in the international team – with Agnaldo Soares I guess – using the Ricordi method for islet isolation — and presented the recent Leiden islet work (1).

Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG. Islet preservation using UW, and islet function after
autotransplantation in dogs. Fondation Transplantation, CHU HautePierre Strasbourg
(France) February 18, 1992.

Update 20250124 – Paper reference

Citation info : Xeno Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250113 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/13/

No Title • @1MEMO 20250112

No Title • Oil- Acrylic painting by Hans Dudart • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250112_1 • TakeNode cbd20789-ebf5-4ede-925b-9b861c6719a4

Scan of print (10×15 cm; photo G.J. v.d. Poort) of oil- acrylic painting (60x50cm) by Hans Dudart.

Hans Dudart (1955-2003) worked as an artist in Holland, and as a valued co-worker in our Experimental Surgical Laboratory of the Leiden University Hospital (AZL, now LUMC) in Leiden, Holland. He died too soon from type 1 diabetes.

Citation info : No Title • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250112 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/12/

Pure Islets • @1MEMO 20250111

Pure Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250111_1 • TakeNode a14f79f7-b04a-41ff-ab27-1de482a9fe4c

Slide film of May 11, 1989 developed by Audio Visual Center Leiden University.

Purified islets after using UW solution as the isolation medium, immuno-stained for insulin.

Citation info : Pure Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250111 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/11/

Islet Transplants Performance 5th ESOT 1991 • @1MEMO 20250109

Islet Transplant Performance 5th ESOT 1991 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250109_1 • TakeNode 75edbb4e-4360-43b8-8783-363ffd34c0ef

Poster (1) presented at the 5th Congress European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) October 7–10, 1991. The poster was originally created on a Macintosh computer Oct 6, 1991, using the MacDraw II application, with graphs from Cricket Graph. That 1991 poster was remastered today in LibreOffice.

We presented 2 posters at the 5th ESOT, this poster (1), and another one on the effects of denervation with pancreas transplantation (2).

Two years after the 4th ESOT (in Barcelona, Nov 1989) where we introduced the UW-Solution as an islet isolation solution before density gradient purification, we now had a talk at this 5th ESOT on the use of the UW-Solution as the islet isolation solution, both before purification, and also during the purification in an innovative density gradient (3) — the foundation for current clinical purification methods. The talk was recorded on tape (except for the intro), and will be posted here soon too.

Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Ebert R, Jansen JBMJ, Creutzfeld W, Lamers CBHW, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Postprandial performance after canine islet transplantation: the importance of gut factors. 5th Congress European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) October 7–10, 1991.

2) Guicherit OR, Van der Burg MPM, Lemkes HHPJ, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Pancreatic
denervation causes reduced insulin sensitivity. 5 th Congress European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) Oct 7–10 1991.

3) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Prins FA, Scherft JP, Frölich M, Gooszen HG. Percoll in UW: efficient iso-osmotic canine and human islet purification. 5th Congress European Society for Organ Transplantation, Maastricht (The Netherlands) October 7–10, 1991.

Citation info : Islet Transplant Performance 5th ESOT 1991 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250109 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/09/

Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification • Igls Aidspit 1999 • 20241202

Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification • Igls Aidspit 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241202_1

I started an archive at Archive.org November 11, 2010 with this slideshow (pdf) of my January 1999 oral presentation in Igls (Innsbruck), Austria, at the 18th Workshop of the AIDSPIT (Artificial Insulin Delivery Systems, Pancreas and Islet Transplantation) Study Group. (Now known as AIDPIT).

The presented results of this innovative islet purification method — developed over nearly 10 years (from 1989) in our Leiden islet laboratory (LUMC) — were the outcome of work I had done spring 1998 with the human islet transplantation group of Camillo Ricordi at the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami , Florida, USA.

Slideshow (pdf) Archive.org

Description

Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification • Igls Aidspit 1999

Slides oral presentation Michel van der Burg, Aidspit meeting 25 Jan 1999, in Igls, Austria

Van der Burg MPM, Ranuncoli A, Molano R, Kirlew T, Ringers J, Bouwman E, Ricordi C. Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification. 18th Workshop Aidspit, Igls (Austria) Jan. 24-26, 1999

Program :
18TH WORKSHOP OF THE AIDSPIT STUDY GROUP – JANUARY 24-26, 1999 – IGLS/AUSTRIA . MONDAY, JAN 25, 1999 – KONGRESSHAUS IGLS, MAIN LECTURE HALL
SESSION 2 – ISLET ISOLATION AND TRANSPLANTATION
CHAIRMEN:K. FEDERLIN, GIESSEN, GERMANY – G. POZZA, MILAN, ITALY 9.00 – 10.30 FREE COMMUNICATIONS
9.45- Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification.
Van der Burg MPM, Ranuncoli A, Molano R, Kirlew T, Ringers J, Bouwman E, Ricordi C; Leiden, The Netherlands and Miami, USA

File : mvdb19990118_1534_AIDSPIT.pdf | Uploaded 20101111 and replaced by the same pdf with updated metadata of the document on 20101112 (see Notes section).

Citation info (Archive file) : Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification • Igls Aidspit 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241202 • URL https://archive.org/details/EfficacyOfTheNovelIodixanol-uwsDensityGradientForHumanIslet • TakeNode 54cc8b66-672e-4b13-913c-449038ed0521

Video Slideshow

The slideshow video embedded below, was first posted at 1-memo.com in 2018 as Human Islet Purification Miami 1998 • @1MEMO 20181102

Notes

The slideshow pdf file is available for download at Archive.org. I advise against the other download options presented by Archive.org , which do not correctly represent the slideshow.

The file was also uploaded to Scribd at the same time – URL https://www.scribd.com/document/42197150/Efficacy-of-the-novel-iodixanol-UWS-density-gradient-for-human-islet-purification-michelvanderburg-19990125

Abstract

Van der Burg MPM, Ranuncoli A, Molano R, Kirlew T, Ringers J, Bouwman E, Ricordi C. Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification (Abstract). Acta Diabetol 1998; 35: 247. View or download abstract below .

1MEMO_20251102_1 Download

Updates

20251101 – Vimeo video replaced by YouTube copy

20251101 – Added PDF copy abstract – file 1MEMO_20251102_1.pdf

Citation info (this post) : Efficacy of the novel iodixanol-UWS density gradient for human islet purification • Igls Aidspit 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241202 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/02/

ZX81 • 20241018

Sinclair’s ZX81 computer (1KB on-board memory , with a 64K memory expansion module inserted at the back) – my first PC – that I started using from 1983 for automation of work in our experimental pancreas and islet transplantation research project – for creating (‘coding’) and using the entire suit of apps, needed for the raw data processing and the (statistical and pharmacokinetic) analysis.
The hardware set-up included a TV (B/W) as monitor, (mono audio) tape recorder for data storage (apps), and a small thermal printer.

Citation info : ZX81 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20241018 • TakeNode 9c595df8-8091-497c-9c9c-ff85fe4de397 • URL michelvanderburg•com