Human Trials Begin In Breakthrough Diabetes Treatment

Filed in archive Treatment on January 30, 2007

Would you mind a few billion pig cells being implanted into you? Some Type 1 diabetics may not.

Pig cell islets are being heralded as a possible 'cure' for Type 1 diabetes, and human trials began today.

The paper said the animal to human "xeno-transplants" involved taking clusters of insulin-producing cells from the pancreases of newborn piglets, coating them in a seaweed-based gel, and inserting the pinhead-sized capsules into the abdomen of a patient with type-1 diabetes.

Each of the six adult patients in the Russian trial would receive billions of the pig cells, said the Herald.

It said unlike similar treatments, no drugs were given to suppress the immune system. The capsules admitted substances like glucose which stimulated the production of insulin but they protected the pig cells from immune system attack.