Islet & Pancreas Transplant

Who Are Those Masked Cells? They’re Researchers’ Answer to Avoiding Transplant Rejection

One of the most promising approaches to the treatment of type 1 diabetes is the transplantation of human islet cells. The major drawback to the procedure has been that even though recipients initially enjoy revitalized pancreases that pump out copious amounts of insulin, their immune systems soon act as spoilsports and reject the donated cells.

0 comments - Dec 2, 2008 -

Research Centers Report “Encouraging Results” in Tests of Artificial Pancreases

Even as diabetes researchers worldwide strive for total control over-or even an outright cure of-type 1 diabetes via gene therapy, altered cells, or surgical intervention, other researchers continue to press toward creation of a functional "artificial pancreas."

0 comments - Nov 3, 2008 -

Grandmother Armed With New Pancreas

A 55-year-old woman whose pancreas was removed due to chronic pancreatitis is not without a pancreas, thanks to the ingenuity of surgeons at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. After they removed her pancreas, they extracted its islet cells and implanted them into her left forearm, creating what they call a functioning pancreas in her arm. (Transplanted islet cells are usually injected into the liver, but in this case the patient's liver had damage that precluded its use.) Apparently the patient is recovering handily and should be armed with insulin as soon as the transplanted cells become fully functional.

0 comments - Oct 20, 2008 -

It’s a Boy! It’s a Girl! It’s a Medical Grade Piglet!

Back in 2007, a gleaming porker barn, unlike anything ever before seen in the annals of pigsty architecture, began operations in western Wisconsin. Known as the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation Islet Resource Facility, the barn is operated by the Spring Point Project. The Project's ultimate goal is to provide an unlimited supply of high-grade pig pancreatic islets for transplant into people with diabetes.

0 comments - Oct 20, 2008 -

NIH Funds Research in Four Countries to Improve Islet Transplantation

The National Institutes of Health will fund studies at 11 research centers in the United States, Canada, Sweden and Norway to look into ways to improve outcomes and lessen the side effects from islet cell transplantations in people with type 1 diabetes.

0 comments - Jul 17, 2008 -

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Can a Tuberculosis Vaccine Reverse Type 1? Phase 1 Trial Now Underway Seeks Answer

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes. The trial is exploring whether the promising results from the laboratory of Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, can be applied in human diabetes.

0 comments - Mar 19, 2008 -

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The Cure: The Slow Road to Hope

Talk of a cure has been around forever. Sometimes it seems as if the cure is a constantly receding dream, always ten years away or just around the next corner.

0 comments - Mar 9, 2008 - Not Yet Rated

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Scientists Report Advances Against Diabetes at Levine Symposium in Southern California

City of Hope researchers were among the more than 50 international investigators reporting advances against type 1 diabetes at the recent Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium in Newport Beach, Calif.

0 comments - Feb 9, 2008 -

Sponsor a Pig Now, Help Insulin Cell Transplants Later

Sponsor a pig and you can help a unique collaboration between Spring Point Project and the University of Minnesota to begin transplanting insulin-producing islet cells from pigs to humans within the next two years.

0 comments - Jan 24, 2008 -

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Pig Pancreas Cells Seem to Thrive in Diabetic Monkeys

Awhile back, three macaque monkeys with type 1 diabetes received transplants of 19 pig pancreas primordia, each one smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

0 comments - Dec 31, 2007 -

Islet & Pancreas Transplant

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