June 5, 1998 BALTIMORE (Johns Hopkins) - The lowly rat is a known carrier of all manner of nasty germs. Someday though, Mr. Rat may also be known as the incubator of healthy, insulin-producing cells that can treat a common form of diabetes. It works in a laboratory dish anyhow. Researchers have succeeded in harvesting cells from a rat's pancreas and coaxing them to produce insulin. They're called islet cells, and the technique holds some promise for treating type I diabetes. The key lies in coating the cells in a special protective sphere. It's a sort of cellular GoreTex:
The coating allows glucose to enter and insulin to exit. But it blocks out immune system cells and thus reduces the chance for rejection or destruction. But a lab dish is not a human body, points out Dr. Christopher Saudek, director of the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center. "There are a number of approaches that may be closer to clinical applicability than this one is, but this is an interesting and potentially useful approach also," says Saudek. Saudek says a number of significant scientific hurdles must first be cleared before such insulin-producing cells could be tested on humans.