The group of WANG Wei has announced that an expert review has cleared the way to study the effect of porcine Langerhans island extracts on type-1 diabetic human patients. The university center operates a pig breeding station, and the island extracts are obtained from newborn pigs whose immune system has been manipulated to contain each human patient’s own regulatory T-cells, thus preventing graft rejection. So far piglets imprinted with the immune system of 10 patients are under study, but the team prepares to treat ten thousands of patients every year in the future. The donor pigs have been selected from a race which is free of endogenous retrovirus C, a risk factor for human infection.
China Bio news release, September 8, 2017