Fetal Pancreas Transplantation for Treatment of IDDM Patients

The debate concerning use of fetal tissue in a clinical setting is relevant to the treatment of diabetes; the ban on clinical use of fetal tissue remains in force. Specifically, this issue raises questions about what has been and what can be done in the use of HFP tissue for treatment of the IDDM patient. The possibility of using such tissue was first raised by Lazarow et al. in the 1973 Banting Lecture (1). Since that time there has been much progress in our understanding of the allograft response and in studies of the growth and differentiation of the HFP. In this report, we review developments in this area and consider their implications in the current political climate.