Sexually mature pigs could hold diabetes key

A recent diabetes discovery has been reported involving the transplantation of pig cells to treat diabetes. Since the year 2000, expert Dr. David White has been the Novartis/Stiller Professor of Xenotransplantation at the University of Western Ontario, investigating xenotransplantation procedures.
He is also the principal researcher for Canada based biotechnology Research Company . Together with the company, Dr. White spoke of a new development in the long road to reversing diabetes. He reportedly said: “The big breakthrough that we made was to discover that if you use Sertoli cells from adult pigs as opposed to what everybody else in the field has been doing – using it from sexually immature baby pigs, we get very much greater protection.”
Dr. White, who has a Cambridge University background, has marked significant progress using Sertoli cells, including the ability to: “completely suppress the immune response to pig insulin-producing cells.” He concluded: “After the transplants were completed, these insulin-producing cells will survive, and will protect the rats against diabetes.”
Cell transplantation is often discarded as a procedure on account of rejection of the cells by human test subjects. Whether this will remain so in the future remains to be seen.