Download mp3

New Zealand recently gave the green light for clinical trials involving the transplantation of pig cells into humans in a potential breakthrough treatment of diabetes.

Health Minister David Cunliffe said the process had huge potential for diabetes sufferers.

Biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies Ltd (LCT) wants to transfer cells from the pancreas of pigs to produce insulin in type-1 diabetes sufferers.

Though the technology could produce significant benefits for patients, it is highly controversial given the potential for a pig virus to be transferred to humans.

The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) warned in 2005 that a deadly virus transmission through this pathway could potentially kill millions of people.

When the current application for a clinical trial in New Zealand was made, a Wellington think tank urged the minister to consult the public on the "community risk" in the event that transplanted pig tissues triggered an infectious disease in humans.

LCT has said it can limit risks by using tissues from piglets in a breeding line said to have been isolated from other pigs for over 150 years on the Auckland Islands.

According to LCT, a group of Russians injected with New Zealand pig cells last year showed reductions in daily insulin requirements ranging from 23 percent to as much as 100 percent, and had good control of blood glucose levels in four out of five patients.

• transplant  (n.)   移植
  The doctor said that the patient's only hope was a heart transplant.

• potential  (adj.)   可能的；有潛力的
  Ads promising a potential income of a million dollars should probably not be trusted.

• entrepreneur  (n.)   企業家；主辦人
  The young entrepreneur tried to start an umbrella business, but it failed because it never rained.

• insulin  (n.)   胰島素
  The bodies of people with diabetes do not produce enough insulin.

• controversial  (adj.)   引起爭議或爭論的
  The political candidate tried to avoid speaking about controversial issues.

• transmission  (n.)   傳送；傳播
  The Carl Sagan novel Contact is about a woman astronomer who receives a transmission from space.

• to inject  (v.)   注射；注入
  Young children should be injected with the measles vaccine.

• to give the green light   核准；批准
  The authorities gave the green light for construction of the new highway.

• community risk   公共風險；社區危險
  Because the vicious dog was considered a community risk, its owners were forced to get rid of it.

• breeding line   品種；品系
  The beautiful Arabian horse came from a long breeding line of racehorses.