UCD DERC Islet & BioResources Core
Islet Preparation Core
The Islet Preparation Core has two primary functions. The first is to harvest live, functioning pancreatic islets from mice and rats for use by members of the local research community. The second is to offer a three-day Islet Preparation Course to labs throughout the country.
The core has over twenty years experience in rodent islet harvesting.
Harvesting Procedure - The animals are humanely euthanized, the in situ pancreas is injected with collagenase, the enzyme-inflated pancreas is removed and incubated at 37°C, the islets are separated and purified from the disintegrating pancreas, and ultimately each islet is hand picked under the microscope.
The number of islets collected from an individual mouse or rat depends greatly on the strain of mouse or rat being used, as well as the animals’ age. Typically, an adult mouse will yield from 100-250 islets, and an adult rat from 200-500 islets.
Rodent Source - The researcher is responsible for obtaining all islet-donor rodents.
Animal Protocol - Researchers requesting pancreatic islets from this Core must first possess a current IACUC-approved animal protocol, which includes a section on our islet harvesting procedure.
We can help you through the protocol writing and submission process.
Animal Core
The Animal Core is designed to support diabetes and endocrine research through three avenues – the production of special strains of mice, the management of researchers’ breeding colonies, and the offering of several animal services. Each of the above is done by our very experienced veterinary technologist.
Production of mice for transfer to researchers - We currently breed two strains for transfer to the researchers:
- NOD/Bdc - The NOD mouse is the “gold standard” for Type I diabetes, and we are currently breeding generation F96 of the BDC line.
- NODscid - This immune-compromised strain on an NOD background is an essential element in determining the role of the immune system in Type I diabetes.
We regularly replace our NODscid breeders with stock from the Jackson Labs.
Management of researchers’ breeding colonies - Many inbred rodent strains are difficult to successfully breed and maintain, and our experienced Vet Tech provides a valuable service to researchers by overseeing the breeding of these refractory strains.
Animal Procedures - We offers the following services:
- Tail snipping for genotyping
- Blood glucose monitoring
- Tattooing for animal identification
- Injections - multiple routes
- Retro-orbital blood collection
Contact personnel:
Phil Pratt and Danny Zipris, PhD.
The purpose of this website is to provide some basic information about the DERC cores including contact information and links to on-line services where they are available. If you have questions about the UCD DERC please contact us (email or phone: 303.724.6836).
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