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Source: ONE News -
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Groundbreaking research to find a cure for type one diabetes is again underway and medical experts are keeping a close eye on a procedure developed by Kiwis as eight patients are having cells from pigs transplanted into their bodies.
Today a 45-year-old father of three from Auckland was wheeled into theatre to undergo a short but significant 20 minute procedure called xenotransplantation.
The controversial process was banned by the New Zealand government for over a decade but has now once again given the green light.
Diabetic Simon Bilton is one of those lining up for xenotransplantation where he will receive islet cells from the pancreas of a pig.
They are not just any pigs but a disease-free sub-Antarctic breed reared in a purpose-built facility near Invercargill.
It is New Zealand research and the medical world is watching closely.
Middlemore diabetes physician Doctor John Baker says it is an absolutely amazing opportunity to be able to test the technology in New Zealand.
Surgeons make a small incision in the abdomen and inject over one million pig islet cells, each the size of a pinhead, up into the cavity surrounding the liver. Those cells will take several weeks to form a blood supply and hopefully start producing insulin for the patient.
Bilton was patient number five and one of the four patients ahead of him is already producing 25% of his own insulin.
"All of them are showing similar sorts of trends which is quite remarkable," says Baker.
It is not the first such trial conducted in New Zealand as six patients were injected with pig cells 14 years ago. However, those trials were halted over concerns a pig retro-virus may one day emerge.
Professor Bob Elliot and his team took their trials offshore to the Pacific and then Russia waiting for the New Zealand government to change its mind. After wide consultation the xenotransplantation ban was lifted two years ago.
"It was only responsible that health authorities did work through those concerns," says Baker.
Bilton admits he is a little nervous but has faith in the science.
"If I did go off insulin for a short period of time that would be absolutely phenomenal," he says.
He will know if it has worked for him in just over a month.
