Charities fund check for lowest dose of pig cells

Two big health charities have agreed to fund an extension of the Auckland clinical trials implanting pig parts in diabetics in a bid to help the patients stabilise their insulin levels.
New Zealand-based Cure Kids and US-based Children with Diabetes Foundation, have each pledged to provide US$140,000 ($185,606) to fund the final two patients in a phase 2 clinical trial at Middlemore Hospital.
Living Cell Technologies is testing the implants as a treatment for type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. The implants are live islet cells taken from the pancreas of specially-bred piglets and wrapped in a seaweed gel so that they do not trigger harmful immune reactions.
Implanted in the patient's abdomen, the pig cells secrete insulin.
The first New Zealand patient implanted with pig cells, last October, was later able to reduce his daily insulin dose. The man, aged 48, had suffered type 1 diabetes for 20 years but dropped his daily insulin injections by 30 per cent while maintaining his usual blood glucose levels. Another 11 patients have since been treated at Middlemore.
Some patients in the clinical trials have received 10,000 units but the charities are interested in checking whether the treatments are effective at lower doses, which would mean more patients could benefit from the small number of pigs available.NZPA