Minicerdos ayudan al tratamiento de la Diabetes insulina-dependiente

En una prueba piloto en Moscú, Rusia se trasplantaron células pancreáticas productoras de insulina (Células B) provenientes de los famosos minicerdos a cuatro pacientes con diabetes tipo 1. Uno de los pacientes pudo suspender las inyecciones de insulina por 5 meses y reducir la dosis a menos de un 20% de la usada antes del tratamiento. Otro paciente la redujo un 40% en seis meses.

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Pig cell transplants help people with diabetes

NewScientist.com
12 April 2008

People with type 1 diabetes need insulin, and one way of providing it would be to transplant the cells that produce it from newly born pigs.

In a trial of the technique in Moscow, Russia, involving four people with diabetes, one recipient was able to suspend her insulin injections for five months, and reduce her dose to less than 20 per cent of previous levels when they resumed. Another patient reduced his dose by 40 per cent over six months.

“These remarkable clinical outcomes have exceeded our expectations,” says Bob Elliott of Living Cell Technologies in Auckland, New Zealand, who announced the results at a congress of the International Diabetes Federation in Wellington, New Zealand, on 31 March. However, the treatment failed in a third patient, while the fourth has only just received her transplant.

Transplants of pancreatic cells from pigs have huge potential, as supplies are practically limitless. They are controversial because of fears that dormant pig viruses in the cells might cause disease.

Elliott says no pig viruses have been detected in the patients, who received a single injection of pig cells into their abdomens. One woman received a top-up injection of cells after six months.

The cells are coated with an alginate gel, derived from seaweed, which allows nutrients to reach them and insulin to diffuse out, but otherwise hides them from the body's immune system. This means patients do not need immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplant.

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