They provide nerve growth factor and supply it at cut nerves. They also have receptors at the surface where nerves contact them. This enhances nerve regeneration even further. Heath's third project focuses on the body's ability to generate insulin. Her team is working on producing islets for the human pancreas.
Islets are pancreatic cells that produce insulin.
Both would require very delicate procedures. The work is still in very early stages, Heath said, with the team working on ways to separate islets from the rest of the cells in a pancreas. Islets make up only about 2 percent of the cells in a pancreas. The team has been successful in using magnetic beads with antibodies attached to sort out the islets. They've demonstrated the technique on rat islets and plan to begin pig studies this fall.