Curing Rats with Transplants

Using embryonic cell and adult pig islets, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have alleviated diabetes in rats. This is great news for diabetics because there was no need for anti-rejection drugs as the transplants where accepted by the body. This was in part due to the dual procedure starting with embryonic pig pancreatic cells then the adult islets several weeks later. It looks as this process primed the bodies immune system to accept the islets.
This is the first long-term cross-species transplant without immune suppression, raising eyebrows to it’s potential in curing diabetes. The human body can react differently, so this would involve studies and tests before findings its value to the treatment in human diabetes. They already have the capability in transferring islets from other humans, but this is limited in numbers and involves immune-suppression drugs for the rest of their lives.
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