Pig cells diabetes breakthrough

Pigs, often used in medicine to help treat human ailments, may now offer a cure for diabetes. A team of US scientists transplanted clusters of insulin-producing pig islet cells into monkeys, with the result that their diabetes was reversed. The incredible study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, is an enormous scientific breakthrough, and the scientists say that it could cure diabetes within 10 years.
Recent discoveries in stem cell research in the UK, which have cured diabetes by transplanting cells from a human pancreas, provided the stimulus for the American study. Human islet cell donors are relatively rare, whereas porcine cells are more readily available.
The team managed to overcome the common problem of cell rejection by concocting a balanced regimen of drugs . All five of the monkeys used in the experiment survived, with their diabetes reversed.
The study, by a team at the University of Minnesota, is aiming to start human clinical trials as early as 2009. They argue that the need for animal-to-human transplants is essential to make this method a viable worldwide option in the fight against diabetes. Although the implications for future cures are enormous, there remains an enormous amount of research to be conducted.