Use of human islets to understand islet biology and diabetes: progress, challenges and suggestions

Abstract

Over the last two decades, improved access to human islets and the development of human islet distribution networks have enabled the use of millions of human islets in hundreds of scientific research projects, leading to a dramatic increase in our understanding of human islet biology. Here we discuss recent scientific advances as well as methodological and experimental challenges that impact human islet quality, experimental outcomes and the reporting of human islets used in scientific publications. In a survey of over 200 scientific publications with human islet experimentation, we found that the reporting of critical information was quite variable, sometimes obscure, and often failed to adequately outline the experiments and results using human islets. As the complexity of human islet research grows, we propose that members of the human islet research ecosystem work together to develop procedures and approaches for accessible and transparent collecting and reporting of crucial human islet characteristics and, through this, enhance collaboration, reproducibility and rigour, leading to further advances in our understanding of human islet biology.

Keywords: Diabetes; Human; Insulin; Islets; Pancreas; Reporting; Research; Resource; Review; Rigour; Transparency; Unique identifier.

Fig. 1

Reporting of pancreas donor and human islet information in research publications. (a) Schematic of literature review of publications describing research with human islets. (b) Number of variables reported in each manuscript (individual manuscripts are represented by open black circles; multiple, overlapping circles create a black line with the length reflected by the number of circles). ~47% of manuscripts report four islet variables or fewer. ~45% report between five and nine variables (shaded grey) and ~8% of manuscripts report ten or more islet variables. (c) Percentage of manuscripts (n=241 in total) that reported selected variables of islet donor/islet function/islet handling information (listed on y-axis). Functional measurement was considered as having performed tests of islet responsiveness to glucose using static culture, perifusion or electrophysiology. CIT, cold ischaemia time; WIT, warm ischaemia time. This figure is available as part of a downloadable slideset

Fig. 2

Preservation of key human islet information throughout the human islet research. Proposed responsibilities of members of the human islet ecosystem for the dissemination of human islet characteristics from organ procurement to publication, as outlined in Table 2. The red line represents communication of islet quality between a centralised phenotyping centre and investigators, as well as a centralised human islet database. Individual investigators should be responsible for compiling the characteristics of human islet preparations, and journals should ensure these characteristics are reported in a clear, accessible manner. This figure is available as part of a downloadable slideset