Table 1.

Autocoating addresses the shortcomings of manual filtration while retaining effectiveness.

	Manual Filtration	Autocoating
Out-of-culture time (hr)	3:00	3:00a)
Human Time (hr)	3:30	1:30a)
Human involvement	Complex Technical Skill	Execute Setup Protocol
Capacity (# of islets)	>500	>500
Control of evacuation	Human eye	Machine Visionb)
Post-evacuation void volume (μL)	70±30	60±10b)
Polycation required (mg)	8	7b)
Islet Yield	80–90%	91%
Islet Viability	>99%	>99%
Islet Circularity	>0.500	>0.500
Insulin Secretion	intact	intact

^a)Autocoating does not reduce time needed to process islets out of culture, which depends largely on the kinetics of polyelectrolyte interactions. However, autocoating decreases human-time requirements since attention is needed only for setup and takedown, not supervision of the process itself.

^b)The autocoating method improves evacuation precision, allowing optimization of polyelectrolyte solution concentration and volume to decrease total polycation demand. Islets are also better protected from the deleterious effects of exposure to air-water interfaces caused by over-evacuation.