Interspecies Transplant Works in First Step for New Diabetes Therapy

[Northerner]

In the first step toward animal-to-human transplants of insulin-producing cells for people with type 1 diabetes, Northwestern Medicine? scientists have successfully transplanted islets, the cells that produce insulin, from one species to another. And the islets survived without immunosuppressive drugs.

Northwestern scientists developed a new method that prevented rejection of the islets, a huge problem in transplants between species, called xenotransplantation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130712114621.htm