ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the survival rate and secretory function of islet cells in rats under condition of three-dimensional microgravity.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Isolated islet cells were assigned to flask-cultured or bioreactor-cultured. Survival rate of islets cultured for days 3, 7, 14 in stationary flasks or microgravity bioreactors was measured by AO-PI double-staining. Cultured islets were identified by dithizone (DTZ) staining, and insulin contents of different culture liquids were measured by radioimmunoassay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Pancreatic islets stained nacarat with DTZ were easily visualized. When islet cells were cultured for 7 days and 14 days, survival rate of bioreactor-cultured islets was (0.9000 +/- 0.0107)% and 0.8038% +/- 0.0092% and higher than flask-cultured islets (P < 0.01). Insulin level of bioreactor-cultured islets is (70.875 +/- 0.31) m micro /L on the cultured 7 days while flask-cultured islets is (41.246 +/- 0.35) m micro /L. There was statistically significant difference of insulin production between the two groups (P < 0.01). Bioreactor-cultured islet contents were higher than flask-cultured on the cultured 14, 21 and 30 days (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Islet cells survival rate and secretory function revealed that bioreactor-cultured islets functioned better compared with flask-cultured islets.</p>