Cell jabs prevent transplant need
November 18, 2009 – 5:00 pm
A new treatment for diabetics which avoids the need for an organ transplant could be administered for the first time in Scotland within months.
The pioneering treatment in Edinburgh will see patients being injected with islets, which are insulin producing cells, from a donated pancreas.
They are injected into a vein leading to the liver in a one-off process which allows patients to lead a normal life.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service opens a new laboratory later.
The islets remain and work in the liver after they are injected into it.
Professor Marc Turner, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service’s associate medical director, said the technique would end the need to do the "high-risk surgical procedure" of transplanting a donor pancreas into a patient.
"Islet isolation can prove life saving for some patients who are unaware of the level of sugar in their blood"
John Casey
Islet transplant programme
He told the BBC Scotland news website: "The majority of people in Scotland with diabetes control it with diet and drugs.
"However, some have great difficulty in controlling their diabetes as their blood sugar swings up and down, so this development should enable us to offer a way of controlling their diabetes more successfully.
"For those patients who do need a pancreas transplant, which is a high-risk surgical procedure, it will be a much more straight-forward and safe procedure."
About 12 patients a year will be able to receive the new treatment.
People who will benefit from the new treatment are those with Type 1, or insulin dependent diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease caused when insulin-producing cells are destroyed by cells that normally defend the body from invading organisms.
Minister for Public Health Shona Robinson said: "I’m delighted to be launching this groundbreaking programme which will be of great benefit to some groups of people living with Type 1 diabetes."
John Casey, lead clinician for the islet cell programme, said: "Islet isolation is a new and highly skilled technique, which can prove life saving for some patients who are unaware of the level of sugar in their blood."
The programme is being run in collaboration with the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University. </p
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