Objectives

The overall objective of this Core is to provide high quality islet and insulin–secreting cells to investigators together with basic and advanced methods to evaluate islet function. Specific objectives are:

1. Provide mouse, rat and human pancreatic islets and insulinomas from normal and diabetic sources
2. Maintain insulinoma cell lines such as HIT-T15, RINm5F, betaTC-3, INS-1 and MIN6 for distribution
3. Provide training in isolation and culture of pancreatic islets from mice, rats and humans
4. Provide service and training in methods for studying insulin synthesis and secretion using perifused islet and beta cells
5. Provide service and training in methods for immunohistochemical analysis of islets and insulin-secreting cells
6. Provide service and training in calcium imaging and other biophysical methods for studying islet and beta cell physiology