article from Diabetes Week

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May 18, 2011

New Jersey's Hackensack University Medical Center has announced that it will

partner with Dr. Camillo Ricordi to test a surgical procedure that could

hold the key to a cure for type 1

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/type-1-issues/> diabetes

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/> .

Ricordi, scientific director of the University of Miami Diabetes Research

Institute, has experimented with implanting insulin

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/> -producing

pancreatic islet cells in the abdomens of monkeys rather than in their

livers. The procedure attempts to avoid the problems of auto-immune

reactions when donor cells are implanted into type 1

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/type-1-issues/> recipients.

In type 1 diabetes, which is considered an auto-immune disease, the body

wrongly attacks pancreatic islet cells, which produce insulin, eventually

destroying them. Transplantation of donor cells is an established procedure,

but the subsequent need for recipients to take drugs to suppress an

auto-immune response to the foreign cells is expensive, burdensome,

life-long, and often opens the door to other diseases.

Ricordi has had some success with his approach in monkeys, and the

partnership with Hackensack University Medical Center will assist him as he

moves into experimenting with human test subjects. Ricordi will recruit four

subjects, none of whom is responding to current treatments, and begin

working with them next year.

Another problem is that the number of transplant donors, which can even

include cadavers, is too small to meet the needs of every potential

transplant recipient. So the partnership will also look into ways to create

a reliable supply of islet cells.

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