Cool_Cuz
08-07-2006, 07:23 PM
I hope this isn't a re-post...but here it goes!
Cells transplanted six months ago from pigs into diabetic monkeys are alive and producing insulin — without the need for immune-suppressing drugs, a biotech company announces Monday.
MicroIslet, based in San Diego, says it has developed a way to encapsulate cells taken from pigs in a material so that it is not recognized by the body as foreign material and then attacked by the immune system. The transplant recipients were seven rhesus monkeys whose own pancreatic islets (clusters of endocrine cells that contain the cells that produce insulin) were destroyed. They now require about half the insulin they needed before the transplant, says company president James Gavin, a professor of medicine at Emory University.
Nathaniel Clark, vice president of clinical affairs of the American Diabetes Association, who has not seen the study and has no association with the company, says the new technology could be a big step forward but is not yet a cure.
The company is continuing research toward human clinical trials. The transplanted islet cells have been functioning in the monkeys for "six months and counting," Gavin says. "We don't know how long this will persist."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-08-06-diabetes-transplant_x.htm
It might not be a cure, but a big step foward is better than nothing! It's good to hear that they really ARE doing something. :)
Cells transplanted six months ago from pigs into diabetic monkeys are alive and producing insulin — without the need for immune-suppressing drugs, a biotech company announces Monday.
MicroIslet, based in San Diego, says it has developed a way to encapsulate cells taken from pigs in a material so that it is not recognized by the body as foreign material and then attacked by the immune system. The transplant recipients were seven rhesus monkeys whose own pancreatic islets (clusters of endocrine cells that contain the cells that produce insulin) were destroyed. They now require about half the insulin they needed before the transplant, says company president James Gavin, a professor of medicine at Emory University.
Nathaniel Clark, vice president of clinical affairs of the American Diabetes Association, who has not seen the study and has no association with the company, says the new technology could be a big step forward but is not yet a cure.
The company is continuing research toward human clinical trials. The transplanted islet cells have been functioning in the monkeys for "six months and counting," Gavin says. "We don't know how long this will persist."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-08-06-diabetes-transplant_x.htm
It might not be a cure, but a big step foward is better than nothing! It's good to hear that they really ARE doing something. :)