Transplanted pig cells may bring relief from insulin injections in type I diabetics

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 28 2010

Living Cell Technologies, a New Zealand based biotechnology company that is investigating the use of living pig cells in the treatment of diabetes has now received $700,000 (US$500,000) grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International for further human trials.

Living Cell chief executive Dr Paul Tan expressed the gratitude on behalf of the company and promises that the grant will help to advance research. He acknowledged that the JDRF had the world's best experts on diabetes and said, “It's a huge step forward for (our) company to be supported by an organisation like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.”

Simon Bilton, a diabetic from Auckland is one of the eight patients on whom these cells from pigs are transplanted in the hope that they will produce the diabetic hormone insulin. This process is called xenoimplantation and took around 20 minutes. He said it would be “absolutely phenomenal” if this procedure could get him off insulin even for a short while. He is awaiting the results in a month’s time. He is one of the first patients to open up to the public about his experiences.

This trial began last October. These patients with type I diabetes were given a large dose of the pig cells. The insulin producing cells from piglets are coated in a sea-weed based gel before they are transplanted to the recipient. This coating protects the cells from body’s immune system that attacks any foreign cell thereby destroying them. The surgeons made a small incision in the abdomen and injected over one million pig islet cells in the pig pancreas, each the size of a pinhead, up into the cavity surrounding the liver. It will take weeks for the cells to be effective after they attach to the liver and other organs say researchers. There is a growth of blood vessels around the transplanted capsule. These blood vessels do not penetrate the capsule but take up the secreted insulin by diffusion. So far the study has shown that this therapy improves control of blood-sugar levels and reduces the need for insulin injections.

Middlemore diabetes physician Doctor John Baker said that all of the eight trial patients are showing results. “All of them are showing similar sorts of trends which is quite remarkable,” he said.

In one of Middlemore patients, there has been a complete recovery from “hypoglycemic unawareness”, which is a fatal and life threatening condition in diabetics in which blood sugar levels may fall drastically without warning to the patient.

Living Cell's medical director, Professor Bob Elliott said that this is a great and important achievement. He said, “This diabetes complication occurs in up to 17 per cent of long term type 1 diabetic people, and is responsible for up to 8 per cent of all deaths in type 1 diabetes.”