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Living with diabetes: islet cells could be used LIVING WITH DIABETES: ISLET CELLS COULD BE USED
It is possible to separate the islet cells (which make insulin) from the gland tissue (which makes digestive juice) in the laboratory. This can be done from adult pancreases but is a difficult procedure and only a very small proportion of the adult pancreas consists of islet cells.
Islet cells can be obtained from the pancreas of fetuses obtained in abortion, or new-born babies who die soon after birth. It has been hoped that these islet cells, which can be cultured in the laboratory, can be placed in the body of persons with diabetes and grow there to produce enough insulin to control the diabetes.
So far work in this field has been somewhat discouraging, though there is some encouragement in that the system works well in experimental animals. It is not known yet whether in the human the islet cells could grow in number and function normally after transplantation.
Tissue rejection remains a problem with islet cells as with transplantation of the whole or part of the pancreas. It is likely that this problem of tissue rejection will be solved eventually. Tissue rejection refers to the process in which the body fights against strange and foreign tissues placed in the body, and thus rejects the transplant which can no longer survive.
The major problems may prove to be in the supply of islet cells and whether they can function properly when they are transplanted. There are problems in obtaining pancreas tissue from aborted fetuses - problems that are moral, ethical and practical - and these problems have not been resolved. It is not known whether islet cells will grow and function adequately when placed in a person with diabetes or whether they themselves may be damaged in the same way as the person's own pancreas cells were damaged when he developed diabetes.
These questions are the subject of a great deal of active research in several world centers including in Australia. It may be many years before they are answered but the possibilities are very hopeful.
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