Recently, researchers have devised a new way to use cell transplantation therapy for treating type 1 diabetes.

Research team led by Dr. Harris Goldstein, professor of paediatrics and of microbiology and immunology at at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has discovered a way to transplant insulin-producing pancreatic cells, which causes only a minimal immune response in recipients.

Researchers found a way to make foreign beta cells invisible to a transplant recipient's immune system, dramatically protecting them from rejection.

The researchers said that they did so by harnessing the innate ability of adenoviruses-which infect tissues that line the respiratory tract, eyes, intestines, and urinary tract-to evade the body's immune surveillance system. They added that adenoviruses produce proteins that prevent the cells from signalling the immune system that they have been infected and should be destroyed.

Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues genetically engineered beta cells to include three adenoviral genes responsible for making immunosuppressive proteins.
The researchers said that diabetic mice that received the engineered foreign beta cells maintained normal glucose control for up to three months, while a control group of diabetic mice exhibited normal glucose control for just a few days.

Dr. Goldstein says: "Clearly, the three proteins were not optimal, because ultimately the cells did get rejected. We are now looking at other viral genes that also contribute to immune suppression and are trying to identify the best gene combination to use."