Diabetes
Pig cells could provide diabetes cure
By IANS
Feb 22, 2006 - 4:12:00 PM

Pig body parts, already used in treating many human ailments, could also provide a cure for diabetes within a decade, say scientists.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota reversed the diabetic condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreas.

The scientists who hope to start trial by 2009 say animal-to-human transplants may be necessary to make islet transplantation a viable solution for people who suffer from diabetes, reports the online edition of BBC News.

Islets are the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, which regulates glucose in the human body. Diabetes attacks islets, which leads to blood sugar abnormalities and eventually threatens other organs in the body.

The monkeys in the study all showed improvement in glucose levels and the amount of insulin needed over the first 180 days. They became insulin independent and had much improved blood sugar control after transplantation.

The advantage of islet transplantation is that it stops patients from requiring regular insulin injections.

If clinical trials in humans begin within three years and everything goes according to plan, the procedure could be used more widely in humans within a decade.

It will enable a patient to make his own insulin like non-diabetics, they said.

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