Combetic Family Members:

Please share this research with any type I diabetics:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php\?newsid=40245

Here is some information from the above link:
One of the most promising treatments for type I diabetes is islet
transplantation, in which islets are extracted from a donated pancreas
and injected into the patient's liver, where they take up residence
and begin making insulin, restoring control of blood sugar levels.
Widespread use of islet transplantation is constrained, however, by
the challenges of preventing the recipient's immune system from
attacking the transplanted islets, and by the extreme shortage of
pancreas donors.

A paper published by Denise Faustman and colleagues at Harvard Medical
School in Science on November 14, 2003, on "Islet Regeneration During
the Reversal of Autoimmune Diabetes in NOD Mice," appeared to provide
a way around both hurdles. In that paper, Faustman argued that her
team had been able to cure diabetic mice by disrupting the immune
system's attack on the insulin-producing beta cells and injecting the
mice with cells from the spleens of other mice, which would "rapidly
differentiate into islet and ductal epithelial cells within the pancreas."

"Our studies confirm that autoimmune diabetes can be reversed," they
conclude, "and that sufficient beta-cell mass can be restored to cure
diabetic NOD mice with the treatment protocol developed by Faustman
and colleagues."

Contact: John Easton
john.easton@...
University of Chicago Medical Center

It may take some time on a waiting list, so shopping around (maybe
outside of U.S.) would be helpful.

Examples of Islet transplant clinics:

http://www.immunetolerance.org/research/islet/trials/shapiro1.html

http://www.diabetes.ucsf.edu/EN/islet_transplantation

http://www.clarian.org

Be Blessed,

Rob