TRANSPLANTS of pig cells have cured diabetes in rats without the need for immunosuppressive drugs. The finding was a complete surprise to the researchers, who have yet to explain it.
Marc Hammerman’s team at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, transplanted cells taken from the developing pancreas in pig embryos into rats whose insulin-producing pancreatic cells had been destroyed. Half the rats were given immunosuppressants, half not. Even without drugs, the pig cells survived for more than 40 weeks, the team say in the online American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism.
After trials in primates, human…
