Pig Cell Go-ahead

New Zealand’s Living Cell Technologies, a company founded by Aucklander Professor Bob Elliott, who has pioneered research in the treatment of type-1 diabetes, has been given approval to trial the transplantation of insulin-producing pig cells into humans. Islet cells from the pancreas of pigs are coated with a seaweed gel and implanted into the abdomen of patients to manufacture insulin and help control their blood sugar levels. Professor Elliott said that his reaction was one of huge excitement and relief. “This is a world first,” Elliot said. “It will do something that I think all diabetics have been wanting, which is a self-regulating cell able to produce insulin on demand and stop producing when it’s not needed.” The implants, to be marketed as DiabeCellB, have been tested at relatively low dosages on a handful of volunteers in Russia since June this year.