islet

While islet cell transplants allow some diabetics to forgo daily insulin injections, those people have to take immunosuppressive drugs in order to keep the cells from being rejected. A new implant, however, could administer the drugs for them – and with fewer side effects.In Type 1 diabetes, the islet cells produced by the pancreas are destroyed by an autoimmune reaction. They therefore aren't available to travel via the bloodstream to the liver, where they would have produced blood-sugar-regulating insulin.As a result,…

Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes today means a lifetime of insulin injections – as of yet, we don't have a simple one-time fix on hand.To date, each breakthrough promising a diabetes cure has encountered significant hurdles, making it not viable for the vast majority of people. Now, researchers in the US have improved upon one type of transplant-based treatment, potentially giving hope to the 9 million people around the world with this condition.  "The immune system is a tightly controlled defense mechanism that…