The research brings hope for millions of people who suffer with the chronic disease. Patients are dependent on injected insulin for life. Medications are necessary for sugar to enter the body's cells and metabolize. Doctors usually recommend diet, exercise and medications, including injected insulin, to control diabetes. But it is the work of a Duke researcher, using pig cells, which could hold a cure.
Pigs make insulin very similar to that of humans.
Some insulin in use today, called pork insulin, originates from swine. A new technique utilizing cells from the pancreatic tissue of pigs is offering the possible cure for diabetes. Specially grown germ-free pigs provide the pancreatic tissue at the time of slaughter. In a highly-specialized technique, the pancreatic tissue is processed immunologically in a lab, creating a solution which contains the special islet cells necessary to make insulin. Dr. Opara says a single injection of the solution, injected into a human's abdominal cavity, is all that is necessary.