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/
Slide #19 of talk by Michel van der Burg at the 4th ESOT congress in Barcelona (Spain) Nov 1989 on the paper ‘Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept’ (1,2). Details of this talk were posted recently (2) with a scan of a paper print of slide #19 – slighly cropped with printing.
Here the full image of the original slide, scanned by Kodak PhotoCD in 1994, with minor color correction added (20250103_1) in this post.
This ‘Slide #19’ shows the final dithizone stained sample of the UW-isolated islets after dextran density gradient purification — a micrograph made April 18, 1989 , the second islet isolation experiment performed using the UW-Solution as the isolation solution.
In the lab journal of the first isolation experiment with UW-Solution, Wednesday April 12th 1989, I noted on the final purified islet preparation : ‘handpicking for encapsulation was not necessary: preparation more than 90% pure ( translated from dutch : “handpicken voor inkapseling was niet nodig: preparaat meer dan 90% zuiver”)’.
‘Handpicking’ of islets had been done at the start of our islet lab in 1985-1987 for counting rodent islets in cell culture dishes, and monitoring islet insulin secretion in tubes (3). Soon, ‘handpicking’ was no longer needed , when monitoring the insulin secretion of isolated islets in perifusion chambers (4,5). However, the handpicking method was used again in a pilot study on encapsulation of islets in 1989 by medical student Joost Clemens (6). Joost had just started on this research project, and was assisting me with islet ‘counting’ (yield and purity assessment) in the ‘duplo’ samples from this first series of UWS isolations.
Macro photography (Photo paper print, September 1987, AVC, Leiden University) of the aspiration of isolated canine pancreatic islets, in a suspension still contaminated with exocrine pancreatic fragments, at the tip of a hand blown glass handpicking pipette (custom made at the Leiden University) collected and transferred into tubes for monitoring insulin secretion the first year of pilot work in the Leiden islet laboratory (4).
1) Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/pancreatic-islet-isolation-with-uw-solution-a-new-concept-20241224/
2) Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/
3) Lucky #1 Islet • 20240811 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com
4) Cradle of Islet Transplants • 20240829 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com
5) Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • 20240911 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com
6) Joost A.M. Clemens (MSc student in Medicine) at the Department of Biomaterials (Prof. dr K. de Groot) and Department of Surgery of the Leiden University (Michel van der Burg , Hein Gooszen). Pilot study of the encapsulation of dog islets using the alginate polylysine and poly-HEMA-phospate method (1989).
At that time , both the Biomaterials department and the Islet Lab of the Surgery department were housed in the building of the Cell Biology department of the Leiden University Hospital (AZL, now LUMC). Below a portrait snapshot I took of Klaas de Groot at a Garden party organized in 1989 by the Department of Cell Biology, Leiden University.
Citation info : Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250103 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/03/
In November 1989, I had my first chance for a presentation at a major international conference, the 4th ESOT meeting in Barcelona, of a paper centered on the rationale for employing the University of Wisconsin (UW) organ preservation solution in pancreatic islet isolation.
This innovative islet isolation work with the UW-Solution had been accepted as a poster presentation for the 4th ESOT meeting (1).
I also took the opportunity to present this new work during a talk on previous isolation work (2,3) at this conference.
‘Behind the scenes’ I had first remade my lost poster at the congress venue (1), and then I rewrote my speech in the hotel room on the older research (2) updated with the more recent work with the UW-Solution, and including the outcome of our first islet transplantations.
Below a scan of that handout of the final speech, written out at full lenght in a notepad from a recent working visit in Minneapolis (4).
Barcelona 89 • Handout 4th ESOT Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241229_3 • TakeNode f8595a82-fba5-4a89-a01f-4c37976d06d7 • PDF FILE 20241229_3 copy is available here
…
( finishing speech first part on our previous islet isolation methods using the conventional RPMI solution – a solution originally designed for tissue culture, not for cold storage of organs )
This slide shows one of the purest preparations obtained, with an estimated purity of 65% islets.
• On the average however a purity of only 30% was obtained.Recently we adopted an entirely new approach to islet isolation.
• Since UW, the new organ cold storage solution has been shown to allow long-term cold storage of the canine pancreas;
• and, since islet isolation too is largely performed in the cold;
• we tested this preservation solution as the isolation medium, throughout the isolation procedure in another 6 dogs;
• as compared to the commonly used solutions like RPMI tissue culture medium.
This slide shows the final dithizone stained preparation after dextran purification of UW-isolated islets.
• UW did not affect islet yield
• however, UW markedly improved purity :
• acinar tissue is virtually absent.
…
1) Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/pancreatic-islet-isolation-with-uw-solution-a-new-concept-20241224/
2) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Van de Woude FT, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989. Oral presentation. (1)
3) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, van de Woude FJ, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. Transplant Proc. 1990 Aug;22(4):2044-5. PMID: 1697121.
This paper appears to be not readily available online – a reprint copy is available at this site (1)
4) Working visit Sep – Oct 1989, joining the pancreatic islet isolation team of the pioneer transplant surgeon David Sutherland at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Citation info : Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/
Daniel Brandhorst at work in the Giessen islet transplant lab. Photo taken during my working visit June 20, 1996, at the laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Islet Transplantation, Third Medical Department of Internal Medicine (head: Prof. dr. R.G. Bretzel), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, in Giessen, Germany.
Citation info : Giessen Islet Transplant Lab • 20240905 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com • TakeNode a9a118ee-6413-4d4f-aa17-d207d7a90025
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
Pancreatic islet transplantation Thesis Repository Leiden University | 20221125 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media
Pancreatic islet transplantation , the doctoral thesis by Michel van der Burg – digital publication ISBN 9789080216402 – is freely available (Open Access) now in the Scholarly Publications repository of Leiden University. Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3486604
The dissertation ‘Pancreatic islet transplantation’ was published first as a paperback in 1994 ( ISBN paperback 9789080216419 ) — and obviously that is considered virtually inaccessible in this digital age. Though it is still available ‘new’ — collectors item 😉
Last October the digital edition ISBN eBook (pdf) 9789080216402 has been produced and first released by the author / publisher Michel van der Burg at Miracles•Media as a free download , available from October 25th, 2022.
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