SCIENTISTS in Australia have managed to reverse diabetes permanently in mice by transplanting glands from a pig's fetus. The transplanted tissue continues to manufacture insulin. This is an important breakthrough in transplantation technology and if the same results could be replicated in humans the condition may be cured (Trans plantation Proceedings, vol 21, p 3811).
Charmaine Simeonovic, Dennis Wilson and Rhodri Ceredig at the Australian National University transplanted glands known as pancreatic pro-islets, which grow to secrete insulin in the adult pig. The researchers made the mice tolerate the graft, even after the withdrawal of drugs which suppress the animals' normal immune response.
Simeonovic and her colleagues say they succeeded with their technique for two reasons. First, they transplanted across the species barrier - and the immune attack against tissues from a foreign species is less complex than its response to tissues from a member of the same species. Secondly, ...
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