Scientists in Japan report they have successfully transplanted insulin-producing cells from the pancreas of a living mother into her daughter to help the daughter's body resume making insulin. They hope this is a major step on the road to finding a cure of diabetes.
The results are very preliminary. The transplant was only attempted once and the patient did not have a typical form of diabetes. In addition, while both the 27-year-old daughter and her mother, 56, are in good health and have normal blood sugar levels, it is not certain what the long term health of either the mother or the daughter will be. It is possible the disease will return, scientists are not sure.
The successful transplant will be reported in the British medical journal 'The Lancet.'
Many experts were excited by the new finding. 'This is a significant advance,' says Alan Cherrington, president of the American Diabetes Association. 'What it says is that if you can get really healthy undamaged islets, it doesn't take as many of them to cure diabetes as it would if they're subject to some trauma.'
Less than one half of the mother's pancreas was used in the transplant. When doctors use pancreases taken from cadavers, they often have to use as many as three to do the same procedure, although newer techniques have often lowered the number needed to one.
The results of the surgery have to be duplicated. It also must be determined if the procedure would be successful on the majority of diabetes patients. The woman receiving treatment here had her condition caused by chronic pancreatitis and her immune system had not destroyed her insulin-producing pancreatic cells.
While this method is still far from proven and any cure may be years away, many scientists are excited by the results of the operation. James Shapiro, a co-author of the article in 'The Lancet' told USA Today, 'It remains to be seen whether transplant from living donors has same effect,' Shapiro says. But 'this is the first successful case, and I'm particularly encouraged by the outcome.'
