I read about a procedure done in Japan where a mother gave about 500,000 islet cells to her daughter by having a portion of her pancreas removed. The islet cells were injected into her daughter and, from what I understand, both are doing very well. Please let me know if this is being performed anywhere in the United States and if so, what it takes to participate. My son is coming up on 10 years having type 1 diabetes. Although there has been some progress in the treatment an answer for a cure has been extremely slow. I read about procedures in other countries, but hear very little about what is going on in the U.S. An article in the AARP magazine makes me believe that people are more successful finding alternative and affordable treatment in other countries.

Sorry. Research is slow. Safety remains important. Funding remains inadequate because the U.S. government is spending money elsewhere and refuses stem cell research because of the current President’s religious beliefs. Unless the American people want this changed, it won’t change.

Despite all of this, the United States is still a leader in medical research, including diabetes research. But, transplants and islet cell transplants remain research procedures because we still do not know all the details of what works best with the least side effects. What you hear about are the research reports picked up by the scientific medical reporters as they are published and far less about the ongoing slow but steady success in many other centers in the United States and elsewhere. If you do a PubMed literature search on these topics, you will see how many articles really are being published.

SB