What was the source of the islet cells?
For each patient, we have used islets from two donor pancreases. Our goal is to improve the way in which we isolate islets, so that we can transplant islets from one donor to one recipient. That is happening already. Q: This once again underscores the need for organ donation. A: It certainly underscores the need to improve donor education and increase the number of organ donors in Canada and around the world. However, there are other issues related to finding an unlimited source, and we are working on alternative ways as well. One possibility is to develop an islet that we can grow in culture. There has been some press recently about a beta cell line growing in culture. Those cells are like cancerous cells in a way; they keep growing and producing insulin. I don’t think that is the long-term goal, because that is only one cell. Islets are multicellular tissues that contain multiple cell types. Cells that secrete insulin are one of the types, but there are also cells that secrete a subs
