"There are no structures similar to the islets of Langerhans, only individual endocrine cells engrafted in the omentum. This is a perfect place for them to release insulin where it will do the most good -- directly into a key blood vessel known as the portal vein," Hammerman explains.
In a collaboration with scientists at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Hammerman has received funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to transplant pig pancreatic primordia into diabetic primates. If the pig-to-primate work is successful, he hopes to move on to human trials.
Rogers SA, Liapis H, Hammerman MR. Normalization of glucose post-transplantation of pig pancreatic anlagen into non-immunosuppressed rats depends on obtaining anlagen prior to embryonic day 35. Transplant Immunology, vol. 15, issue 1, Sept. 2005.