Indian J Med Res
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Background & objectives Isolation of functional pancreatic islets for diabetes research and clinical islet transplantation stands as a big challenge despite the advancements in the field. In this context, the non-availability of human/animal tissues is one of the major impediments to islet-based research, which has tremendous scope for translation. The current study explores the feasibility of using the bovine pancreas as an alternative source to isolate pancreatic islets and assess its functionality for in vitro studies. ⋯ Interpretation & conclusions The isolation procedure described in this study yielded viable islets for in vitro studies which showed a differential response to glucose challenge, confirming their viability. We provide a simple and reproducible method for small-scale isolation of functional islets from the bovine pancreas. This model proffers the beginner a hands-on in islet experiments and helps to re-iterate the process that could be extrapolated to other pancreatic tissues as well as to expand on diabetes research.