Pitt uses genetically-altered pigs to research diabetes treatment

Pigs might provide a new treatment for Type 1 diabetes, according to one Pitt… Pigs might provide a new treatment for Type 1 diabetes, according to one Pitt researcher.

Genetically altered pig cells, called islet cells, contain a specific gene that produces the human version of a protein which helps produce insulin, a substance needed to control the body’s blood sugar.

Currently, people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes take insulin shots, because their bodies’ immune systems destroy the cells that produce insulin. The shots compensate for that loss of insulin.

Pitt researcher Massimo Trucco thinks transplanting these pig cells into humans with Type 1 diabetes might eliminate the need for insulin shots.

Trucco, whose work is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, said his researchers chose to use genetically altered pig cells because of their successful trials on monkeys. Therefore he thinks the human body will be less likely to reject the cells, as it has rejected other cells researchers have tried.

He said he and his colleagues — researchers from the Netherlands and Australia — transplanted the islet pig cells into monkeys and found that the cells worked in their bodies for more than a year.

Previous research, which used a different type of pig cells, showed that the new cells would begin to stop functioning after about a month in both humans and monkeys.

Trucco said he hopes to use the islet cells in a clinical trial on humans.

“In the trial, we are attempting to block the autoimmune process that brings about the clinical onset of the disease,” he said.

Trucco said he thinks the islet cells might work in humans for several reasons.

First, pig insulin is almost identical to human insulin, except for a difference in one amino acid, Trucco said. Second, the animal version was used successfully for many years to treat patients until human insulin became available.

And third,he said pigs are similar to humans biologically and can generate 10 to 12 piglets per pregnancy. The piglets grow to adulthood in about six months.

“Pigs don’t face the same ethical and medical restrictions for transplant use as monkeys and other primates do,” Trucco said.

Farms are already set up to produce many pigs. Once the appropriate facilities are built on those farms, the islet cells can be used for transplantation, Trucco said.

Pitt student Miguel Martinez, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 3, said he hopes Trucco’s solution will work. Martinez currently uses insulin pump therapy to treat the disease.

“As a diabetic, I encourage and support the research of new ways of treating diabetes,” Martinez said. “For too long, insulin has been the only way to treat diabetes.”