CALGARY, February 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. James Shapiro, a surgeon at the University of Alberta who pioneered the transplant of insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes, has moved his research a step forward. He and a team of scientists at Japan’s Kyoto University Hospital have taken islet cells, the cells in the body that produce insulin, from a healthy donor, and transplanted them into the body of her 27 year-old daughter.
Previously, islet cells taken from dead donors are often damaged through cryogenic freezing. Cells taken from a living donor may be used to treat insulin-dependent diabetes by replacing the cells that produce insulin naturally in the pancreas.
“Our expectation is that these islets from near-perfect organs will work better,” said Dr. Shapiro. “Living donor islet transplants could allow many more desperate patients with type 1 diabetes to get successful islet transplants. The donor operation is relatively safe, but is not entirely devoid of serious potential risk,” he said.