WOMAN DITCHES DIABETES WITH TRANSPLANT

Japanese scientists transplanted insulin producing cells from a woman's pancreas into her daughter, who was diabetic only to discover that she was no longer diabetic after the transplant. The woman suffered from type 1 diabetes and had to have daily insulin shots to keep her glucose (blood sugar) levels where they need to be. All of this has been published in the medical journal The Lancet according to a post at EarthTimes.org.

Here's a quick clip from that post:

In Japan on January 19 this year, Kyoto University Hospital’s Shinichi Matsumoto and his team isolated islet cells from the 56-year-old woman and planted them into her daughter’s liver. The patient’s blood glucose levels were watched on a regular basis and she was subsequently taken off insulin. In about 22 days after the operation, the diabetes victim became insulin-independent and has so far remained that way. No complications have been seen in both the donor and the recipient and doctors are hopeful that the islet cell transplant would last up to five years.

Wow--it seems so simple. I'm surprised no one's thought of something like this before. Let's hope it works for all those people who suffer diabetes.