‘Super-grafts’ that could treat diabetes

To save patients with a severe form of type 1 diabetes, pancreatic cell transplantation is the last resort. However, the transplant process is long and complex: a significant part of the grafted cells die quickly without being able to engraft. By adding amniotic epithelial cells to these cell clusters, researchers have succeeded in creating much more robust ‘super-islets’ of Langerhans. Once transplanted, more of them engraft; they then start producing insulin much more rapidly. …read more