Pig cells can heal diabetes

US scientists say in a decade that insulin-producing cells from pigs will be transplanted into humans to treat type 1 diabetes.

Pig heart valves and pig cells have also been used to treat human diseases. (Photo: TTO) A team at the University of Minnesota, USA has successfully transplanted pig-derived pancreatic cells. into the body of 5 monkeys with diabetes. These monkeys are given anti-rejection drugs and they have completely recovered.

Scientists hope human experiments will begin in 2009. At that time, there will be hundreds of thousands of diabetics with animal tissue transplants. In the past, it was successful in transplanting cells from human pancreas to heal diabetes. But these gifts are too rare, so cells and tissues from pigs are an optimal alternative.

However, anti-body drugs that eliminate foreign objects from implants still produce too many adverse reactions for patients. So more research is needed to reduce this side effect.

It is also thought that hundreds of thousands of patients who have had heart valve replacement with pig heart valves and pig cells have also been widely used to treat Parkinson's tremor.

KHANG LINH (BBC News)