Chinese doctors treated an end-stage type 2 diabetic patient by implanting islet tissue derived in vitro from his own endoderm stem cells. The patient has been insulin-independent for 33 months.
Chinese doctors treated an end-stage type 2 diabetic patient by implanting islet tissue derived in vitro from his own endoderm stem cells. The patient has been insulin-independent for 33 months.
I wanted to see exactly where they transplanted the islet cells, because my understanding was that transplanting them to the pancreas was not really viable for a number of reasons:
The allograft they made was from the patients own pluri-potent stem cells, which developed into a piece of tissue comprised of islet beta cells which produce insulin. They took this tissue, cut open this huge vein that goes into the liver, stitched this tissue into the opening, and closed the patient back up.
In general, percutaneous refers to the access modality of a medical procedure, whereby a medical device is introduced into a patient's blood vessel via a needle stick.