A New Zealand company is reporting success in treating Type I diabetes with transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs. The company, “Living Cell Technologies”:http://www.lctglobal.com/about-lct.php (LCT) announced this week that one of two patients taking part in a trial of the method in Russia has been able to stop taking insulin injections.

The therapy involves transplanting live micro-encapsulated pig islets injected into the abdominal cavity of people with Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease not caused by poor diet.

According to the company, two patients have been implanted with their first dose of the insulin-producing cells and are due for a second dose 6 months later. The transplant does not require immunosuppressant drugs.

The first patient was injected with his first dose in June. That patient was able to reduce his daily insulin requirement by 40 percent.

The second recipient was implanted with her first dose of in September. One month later, the patient was no longer taking insulin injections.

LCT is scheduled to present its findings at an international biotechnology conference in New York in November.