According to Bloomberg News, a medical breakthrough has been discovered. It is now possible to receive a transplant of insulin-producing cells using a device that does not require the use of immune-blocking drugs anymore. This might eventually lead procedures that would revive weakened organs that are safer and more effective. This breakthrough was discovered when a 63-year-old man with Type 1 diabetes received the transplant of these cells through a device that did not use immune-blocking drugs and the cells have survived for 10 months and demonstrated capability to produce insulin.

Bloomberg News cited the findings of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which stated that this new approach can lead to diabetes therapies and other form of tissue transplants that would not require immune suppression, the side effects of which may surpass the benefits. A lot of people have been searching for novel methods of transplanting that would not use immunosuppression. Human bodies excrete insulin from beta cells, or the cells in the pancreas. Normally, there is a difficulty in harvesting cells and transplanting them without immunosuppressing drugs because the patient's body might reject the cells. However, immunosuppression runs the risk of making the treatment worse than the disease and this discovery is more than welcome.

The new device can also make pig cells worthy of use in treating diabetes. Human beta cells are difficult to get and harvest, and the idea that pig cells can serve as alternative to human beta cells is good news. Pig cells work in the same fashion as human beta cells even though they are the first cells that would begin decaying after death.

Today's report showing it is likely to prevent rejection without drugs is indeed a medical breakthrough. More methods of transplant in other diseases can be discovered because of this. For instance, diseases in the adrenal cortex, which releases hormones because of stress can be made worse by the side effects of transplant. If this new device is adapted, these side effects may be eliminated. Stefan Bornstein, at the University Hospital Carl Gusvac Carus in Dresden is currently on a project to do precisely this - adapt the technology to use in the adrenal cortex.