Early increased growth is associated with the body making more insulin, which is thought to increase the likelihood of an autoimmune response to pancreatic islet cells.

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Now into this gloom comes a new type of drug, called an anti-CD3 antibody, that aims for the first time to delay or prevent development of the devastating disease by arresting the immune system's attack on pancreatic islet cells.

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Among them are neural cells to treat spinal cord injury and degenerative nervous system diseases, cardiomyocytes to treat heart disease, pancreatic islet cells to treat diabetes, dendritic cells for cancer therapy, chondrocytes for arthritis, osteoblasts to rebuild bone and hepatocytes for drug discovery and liver failure.

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It is a rare type of cancer called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor that afflicts the hormone producing islet cells in the pancreas.

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