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Yellow staining shows CD*+T cells poised to target preproinsulin. The white outline on the right shows the perimeter of an insulin-containing islet in a patient with type 1 diabetes. The image shows that the preproinsulin-specific T cells can wait very close islets, probably poised to destroy the beta cells inside. Credit: Von Herrath Laboratory, La Jolla Institute for Immunology ============================================================================= Your pancreas is studded with cell clusters called islets. In most people, special beta cells live snug in the islets, happily making the insulin that the body uses to regulate blood sugar. But in people with type 1 diabetes, the...

Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say. A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study in Nature Medicine reports. UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells - but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution. The University of Minnesota hopes to start trials in humans by 2009. The university's researchers argue that animal-to-human transplants may be necessary to make islet transplantation a viable solution for the tens...

Pancreatic Cell Transplant from Living Donor Could Treat Diabetes 19 Apr 2005 Japanese researchers have successfully reversed a woman's diabetes by transplanting insulinmaking cells (islets) from a living donor's pancreas into her, reporting their results in a research letter published online today by The Lancet. This is the first successful operation of its kind using the islets from a living donor. Since the success of islet transplantation in 2000 from the organs of dead donors, demand for the procedure has risen substantially and donors will soon be in very short supply. Islet transplantation from living donors represent an alternative approach...