Transplants and Diabetes

Toronto scientists have developed an organ transplant procedure that could, among its many benefits, reverse diabetes. The procedure was developed by Bernard Leibel, Julio Martin and Walter Zingg at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children. The story of their work began in 1978, when they delved into research which had never before been tried. They wanted to determine if the success rate of organ transplants would increase if the recipient was injected …

…The scientists eventual goal is a human trial, but they admit it will be years before such a study is conducted. The obvious benefit for diabetics, if human trials prove successful, would be a return to a normal life without dietary restrictions or insulin shots. But to Liebel, the most important reason to continue research is to eliminate the debilitating, degenerative diseases such as kidney, eye and heart failure that eventually plague the aging diabetic.