Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (hPBMCs) are essential for designing cellular models to be used in cell therapy and drug discovery research programs [1-7, 12]. Being able to access reliable and ethical sources of well-characterized hPBMCs is now becoming fundamental for running physiologically relevant cell-based assays. A good opportunity to discuss the expanding applications for hPBMCs in drug development, that Patricia Bresnahan, PhD (Global Marketing Director at HemaCare Corporation) has observed over the last years.

The islets of Langerhans are the regions of the pancreas that contain its endocrine (i.e., hormone-producing) cells. Discovered in 1869 by German pathological anatomist Paul Langerhans, the islets of Langerhans constitute approximately 1% to 2% of the mass of the pancreas. There are about one million islets distributed throughout the pancreas of a healthy adult human. Each is separated from the surrounding pancreatic tissue by a thin fibrous connective tissue capsule. The islets of Langerhans contain beta cells, which secrete insulin, and play a significant role in diabetes.

Islets are widely used for transplantation to restore beta cell function from diabetes, offering an alternative to a complete pancreas transplantation or an artificial pancreas. Because the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans are selectively destroyed by an autoimmune process in type 1 diabetes, islet transplantation is a means of restoring physiological beta cell function in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Human Islets for Research (HIR)® are primary human islets processed from organ donor pancreases that have been approved for research but not for clinical transplantation of either the  pancreas or the isolated islets. HIR® are obtained in a proprietary process of pancreas digestion and islet purification that results in uniformly high quality HIR® for delivery to diabetes  investigators. Quality Control (QC) testing is routinely performed prior to release to assure uniform quality and function of these islets available for research.

Lipodystrophies are disorders characterized by complete or selective loss of adipose tissue from various regions of the body. They might lead to severe metabolic disorders. The development of reliable cellular experimental models mimicking such diseases in vitro is extremely challenging (1). One of the main hurdle in the design of such in vitro cellular models is the access to reliable sources of well-qualified primary cells and the identification of optimal cell culture conditions.

When it comes to the body’s natural defenses, is it possible to have “too much of a good thing”? Absolutely. To spare the host, the immune system needs to distinguish it from the real enemy –infectious agents. Autoimmune disorders occur when this recognition frays and the body’s own cells and tissues are damaged.

That’s where regulatory T cells, or Tregs, come in.