Table 2.

Key milestones in the history of islet isolation

Researcher	Country	Year	Milestone
Bensley [40]	USA	1911	Islet staining with neutral red and hand-picking
Björkman et al. [36]	Sweden	1964	Microscope microdissection of islets
Moskalewski [21]	Poland	1965	Use of collagenase in mouse islet isolation
Lacy and Kostianovsky [22]	USA	1967	Pancreas distention by intraductal injection of cold saline buffer
Lindall et al. [37]	USA	1969	Islet purification by Ficoll density gradient
Horaguchi and Merrell [25]	USA	1981	Design of a new system to perfuse the pancreas
Ohzato et al. [38]	Japan	1985	Pancreas distention by intraductal injection of collagenase
Ricordi et al. [29,30]	USA	1988	Design of the “Ricordi chamber”
Lake et al. [39]	UK	1989	Introduction of the COBE 2991 in human islet isolation
Barton et al. [32]	USA	1994	Marketing of Liberase HI for optimization of human islet enzymatic dissociation
Shapiro et al. [33]	Canada	1999	Introduction of a recirculating controlled perfusion system in human islet isolation