So far, the procedure appears to be "simple, noninvasive, painless and devoid of side effects," he continued. Although the patients still require insulin, one has shown a reduction in GHb and frequent (four per week) severe hypoglycemic episodes have disappeared.

The researchers note that the Italian Ministry of Health granted permission to recruit 10 patients for this study, and adjustments to the procedure in the remaining subjects may further improve clinical results.

Dr. Calafiore added that "the restricted availability of cadaveric human donor pancreases for islet retrieval makes it almost inevitable future use of non-human tissue or human engineered/non-engineered, or finally multi/pluripotent stem cells as a resource for insulin producing cells."

Even in these instances, he concluded, "the special immunobarrier provided by the capsules could help obviate (the) use of immunosuppressive agents."