Transplanted Hopes
Islet-cell success may bring a diabetes cure closer
A compelling description of untreated diabetes comes from Aretaeus of Cappadocia. Writing in the second century A.D., he called the disease “a melting down of the flesh and limbs to urine.”
Despite such an early recognition of the symptoms and severity of diabetes, effective treatment proved elusive. In the late 1800s, researchers localized the problem to the pancreas, a 100-gram digestive-system organ located just behind the stomach, and they figured out that people with the disease don’t process sugar effectively.