Japanese physicians said on Wednesday that they carried out the world's first live transplant of tissue from the pancreas in an attempt to help a severely diabetic woman in her 20s.
They said the operation was successful, with the woman and the donor -- the mother of the patient -- both in stable conditions.
Physicians at the Kyoto University Hospital removed part of the pancreas of the mother, aged in her 50s, and injected separate islets, or groups of pancreatic cells secreting insulin, into her diabetic daughter.
If successful, the injected islets will produce insulin in the daughter's body.
"We were successful in separating clean islet cells. It is highly possible" that the diabetic woman will be able to lead a normal life without insulin injections, said Shinichi Matsumoto, who led the transplant team.
The operation has been performed around the world using islets from dead people but there is a serious shortage of donors, doctors said.
The daughter developed chronic pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, when she was four years old and became diabetic when she was 15 after her pancreas stopped producing insulin.
For more than a decade, she has depended on insulin injections and experienced occasional loss of consciousness.