![Type 1 diabetes could be tackled by new technique involving implanting insulin-producing cells into the eye](https://chadlaw.dnsupdate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Injection-needle.jpg)
11
Feb 2020
Type 1 diabetes could be tackled by new technique involving implanting insulin-producing cells into the eye
Trials have shown that the technique cut the need for regular daily insulin injections by more than 50 per cent in animals, and is now to be tested on humans.
Whilst type-2 diabetes is linked to an unhealthy lifestyle and occurs when the body produces insufficient insulin, type-1 is caused by the immune system destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, known as islet cells. There is currently no cure and patients need several doses of insulin every day by injection or pump.
In the new trial, donor cells will be injected into the anterior chamber of the patients’ eye. This area has been chosen as it has ‘immune privilege’, meaning it does not start an immune attack on foreign bodies, thereby hoping the transplanted cells will not be targeted.
Patients involved in the trial at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in the USA, all with type 1 diabetes who are blind in one eye, will have islet cells donated from cadavers infused into their eye through a small incision in the cornea. The procedure will be carried out under anaesthetic and will take around 25 minutes.
Dr Ali Aldibbiat, honorary research associate at Newcastle University and consultant in iabetes and endocrinology at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait, says islet transplantation has increasingly been used over the last twenty years.
He added “We eagerly wait for the result of the trail to see if this transplantation approach is safe for the eye and whether the transplanted islets are effective in treating diabetes.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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