HONG KONG (Reuters) - Cells from a pig transplanted into a diabetic man from New Zealand are still producing insulin nearly 10 years later, prompting a biotechnology company to plan research to see if others could benefit.
The case, profiled in a scientific journal issued on Friday, may pave the way for a cure for diabetes, said Bob Elliot, medical director of Australia's Living Cell Technologies (LCT).
The man, now 41, suffers from type 1 diabetes, when cells in the pancreas do not produce insulin -- a hormone needed to store or use sugar. This results in abnormally high sugar levels in the blood, or diabetes, which needs to be corrected with daily insulin injections.
The pig cells were injected into the man's abdomen in 1996, which helped reduce his insulin requirements by 34 percent for a year, researchers from the biotech firm wrote in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Xenotransplantation.
The man insisted he still felt better in 2006 and convinced the company to examine him.
