Increasing evidence suggests that islet cell transplantation for patients with type I diabetes
holds great promise for achieving insulin independence. However, the extreme shortage of
matched organ donors and the necessity for chronic immunosuppression has made it
impossible for this treatment to be used for the general diabetic population. Recent success
in generating insulin-secreting islet-like cells from human embryonic stem (ES) cells, in
combination with the success in deriving human ES cell-like induced pluripotent stem (iPS) …