Grafting Pancreatic Islets: A Method to Implant Pancreatic Islets into the Anterior Chamber of the Mouse Eye for In Vivo Imaging

- Pancreatic islets contain beta cells that secrete insulin. In type-1 diabetes patients, insulin-making beta cells become dysfunctional. Transplantation of islets in such patients offers potential for providing glycemic control. To evaluate the transplantation efficiency, we use animal models such as a mouse whose anterior eye chamber is an optimal site for grafting and in vivo imaging.

For transplanting islets, place an anesthetized mouse on a warm heating pad and inject buprenorphine, an analgesic to relieve pain, subcutaneously at the back of the mouse. Next, insert the mouse's nose into a nose mask for a continuous supply of oxygen and anesthetic isoflurane.

Fix the mouse's head in the head holder to expose the eye and gently retract the eyelid using blunt forceps to pop the eye out. Load a cannula with fluorescently labeled islets. Insert the cannula's half tip into the cornea. Lift the cornea, gently dispense the islets, remove the cannula, and apply eye gel.

After the desired duration, place the mouse under a two-photon microscope and take images. You may observe blood vessels forming a microvascular network throughout the graft. In the following protocol, we will perform h