Doctors and researchers at the City of Hope have been studying pancreatic islet cells, the cells that produce insulin. They have discovered that, in diabetics, the immune system often views islet cells as a danger to the body and attacks them. The result is that the diabetic is not left with enough islet cells to produce sufficient insulin.
Islet cells that could be transplanted and allow a diabetics to possibly produce their own insulin again must come from the bone marrow of a healthy, non-diabetic bone marrow donor. Unlike organ transplants, islet cells are pretty much the same from one person to another. Therefore, the likelihood of a long waiting list is eliminated.
During a surgical procedure, the doctor places the donated islet cells into the live where they take root and begin producing insulin.
Like all transplants, there is the risk that the body will reject the transplanted islets. To date the average islet transplant patient produces his or her own insulin for two to three years according to Dr. Miao Wang.
Whether repeated transplants can be done is yet to be determined but during those two or three years a lot can happen new medications can be developed, possibly even a longer-term transplant.
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