Skepticism surrounds diabetes xenograft experiment

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe The news that a team of researchers has 'cured' a patient with Type 1 diabetes using pig islet cells transplanted within a

prototype device has roused the diabetes, transplant and xenotransplantation communities. While all are united in the hope that the results are _bona fide_, the lack of hard data from the

study is generating intense skepticism. And the fact that the trial was carried out in Mexico, outside internationally recognized regulatory conditions, is also causing concern. At best, the

scientific community has expressed a guarded reaction to the potentially groundbreaking work. James Shapiro, Director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program at the University of Alberta,

who pioneered the successful Edmonton Protocol—whereby donor human islet cells are transplanted into the liver—says of the work, “There are a lot of firsts. It's a leap of faith.” This

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Karen Birmingham Authors * Karen Birmingham View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS

ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Birmingham, K. Skepticism surrounds diabetes xenograft experiment. _Nat Med_ 8, 1047 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1002-1047 Download citation * Issue Date: 01

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