loCATIONS
Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM), Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LE
Heide Brandhorst
Dr.oec.troph., Ph.D.
Senior Postdoctoral Scientist
The success of human islet transplantation strongly depends on the outcome of the enzymatic islet isolation process. My research activity aims at optimisation and standarisation of protease blends to maximise islet release from within the acinar tissue of the human pancreas and to prevent enzymatic destruction of these fragile micro-organs.
As an initial step toward enzyme standardisation we previously provided the prove of principal that successful human islet isolation is possible by utilisation of a recombinant collagenase blend.
Further optimsation was obtained by identifying the ideal ratio between collagenase class I and class II which was an important step to reduce islet-toxic proteolytic activities.
Currently we are working to identify alternative enzymes that can replace neutral protease activities which are characterised by islet-toxicity.
Recent publications
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Perlecan: An Islet Basement Membrane Protein with Protective Anti-Inflammatory Characteristics.
Journal article
Brandhorst D. et al, (2024), Bioengineering (Basel), 11
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An oxygen-delivering Hyaluronic acid-based matrix reduces inflammation and promotes human islet survival in macroencapsulation devices
Conference paper
Brandhorst H. et al, (2023), TRANSPLANTATION, 107, 128 - 128
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Developing an algorithm for islet transplant dosing that considers both pancreas donor and islet recipient factors
Conference paper
Firth J. et al, (2023), TRANSPLANTATION, 107, 85 - 85
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Perlecan: An islet basement membrane protein with anti-inflammatory qualities
Conference paper
Brandhorst D. et al, (2023), TRANSPLANTATION, 107, 161 - 161
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Reducing neutral protease dose during islet isolation does not impair islet recovery from pancreases retrieved for autologous use
Conference paper
Spiers RM. et al, (2023), TRANSPLANTATION, 107, 43 - 43