Researchers will implement pork cells in diabetics
A New Zealand Biotechnology Company began an experimental treatment for diabetes on Thursday in which new human volunteer cells will be implemented.
The Living Cell Technologies company expects cells to delay the effects of type 1 diabetes, including blindness, premature coronary heart disease and amputation of members derived from a low blood circulation.
Professor Bob Elliott, medical director of the company, admitted that, even at best, the treatment will not eliminate all symptoms.
Some scientists warned that the implementation of pigs involves risks.Others say that it is too early to try human beings because there have been no evidence with animals.
One of the risks is that existing viruses in animals but not in humans can jump from one species to another, potentially causing new diseases and possible pandemics.Scientists say there are more than a hundred pigs that could transfer to human beings.
Elliott said Thursday that the possibility that an endogenous porcine retrovirus (the virus that could be more contagious to humans) affects humans is mostly "theoretical."
"There is no evidence of risks" of infection with a pig retrovirus, he said.
He added that the pigs used, recovered from 150 years of isolation in islands south of New Zealand, were not bearers of any known agent who could infect humans and that are maintained in a totally closed and sterile environment.
Professor Martin Wilkinson, former director of the New Zealand Bioethics Council, said that pig cells represent "a very small risk", sufficiently low to be used in human receptors.
He added that animal cell transplantation should not be prohibited only by the possibility of risks.Wilkinson did not participate in the tests.
In type 1 diabetes, the organism attacks mistakenly and destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, the crucial hormone to convert blood sugar into energy.
