JoeC
06-14-2007, 12:24 PM
Pigs Abandoned by Whalers 200 Years Ago May Help Treat Diabetes
By Simeon Bennett
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Pigs abandoned by British whalers on remote islands between New Zealand and Antarctica 200 years ago may help provide a treatment for the form of diabetes that affects as many as 1.4 million Americans.
Scientists in Russia transplanted pancreatic islet cells from the pigs into a patient with the disease on June 6, said Living Cell Technologies Ltd., the Australian company developing the experimental treatment. It's the first transplant of its type, said Paul Tan, the company's chief executive officer.
The transplant, at Moscow's Sklifasovsky Institute, may help the 27-year-old patient produce his own insulin, the hormone that converts food into energy. People with type 1 diabetes don't make insulin and must inject it daily. Even with injections, the disease can lead to complications, including heart, eye and nerve ailments and limb amputations.
``This presents for the first time a radically different method for treating diabetes,'' Tan said in a telephone interview today. ``What you've got is you're actually implanting cells that will produce insulin in the patient as required by the body.''
The treatment may teach the patient's pancreas to produce the insulin it needs by responding naturally to blood sugar levels, instead of injections which can give the body too much or too little insulin, Tan said.
Living Cell Technologies will give the patient another transplant in about six months' time, and will assess him for another year to see if the cells produce insulin, Tan said. The company wants to test the treatment in as many as 50 patients in Russia, New Zealand and the U.S., Tan said. It hopes to start selling the product, called DiabeCell, by 2012.
Abandoned Pigs
The pigs used in the transplant were chosen because they are free of the viruses and parasites commonly found in other pigs, Tan said. British whalers abandoned the animals on the Auckland Islands, 465 kilometers (290 miles) south of New Zealand's South Island about 200 years ago, he said. The animals were considered a pest that destroyed native flora and fauna, and which New Zealand's Conservation Department wanted to exterminate, he said.
Living Cell Technologies keeps and breeds the pigs in two contained facilities in New Zealand.
Shares in Living Cell Technologies rose half a cent, or 3.7 percent, to 14 cents on the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney. The stock has fallen 26 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: June 14, 2007 05:39 EDT
By Simeon Bennett
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Pigs abandoned by British whalers on remote islands between New Zealand and Antarctica 200 years ago may help provide a treatment for the form of diabetes that affects as many as 1.4 million Americans.
Scientists in Russia transplanted pancreatic islet cells from the pigs into a patient with the disease on June 6, said Living Cell Technologies Ltd., the Australian company developing the experimental treatment. It's the first transplant of its type, said Paul Tan, the company's chief executive officer.
The transplant, at Moscow's Sklifasovsky Institute, may help the 27-year-old patient produce his own insulin, the hormone that converts food into energy. People with type 1 diabetes don't make insulin and must inject it daily. Even with injections, the disease can lead to complications, including heart, eye and nerve ailments and limb amputations.
``This presents for the first time a radically different method for treating diabetes,'' Tan said in a telephone interview today. ``What you've got is you're actually implanting cells that will produce insulin in the patient as required by the body.''
The treatment may teach the patient's pancreas to produce the insulin it needs by responding naturally to blood sugar levels, instead of injections which can give the body too much or too little insulin, Tan said.
Living Cell Technologies will give the patient another transplant in about six months' time, and will assess him for another year to see if the cells produce insulin, Tan said. The company wants to test the treatment in as many as 50 patients in Russia, New Zealand and the U.S., Tan said. It hopes to start selling the product, called DiabeCell, by 2012.
Abandoned Pigs
The pigs used in the transplant were chosen because they are free of the viruses and parasites commonly found in other pigs, Tan said. British whalers abandoned the animals on the Auckland Islands, 465 kilometers (290 miles) south of New Zealand's South Island about 200 years ago, he said. The animals were considered a pest that destroyed native flora and fauna, and which New Zealand's Conservation Department wanted to exterminate, he said.
Living Cell Technologies keeps and breeds the pigs in two contained facilities in New Zealand.
Shares in Living Cell Technologies rose half a cent, or 3.7 percent, to 14 cents on the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney. The stock has fallen 26 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: June 14, 2007 05:39 EDT