New pancreas from OLD is it like the Alladins New lamps for Old lamps ?

Because human islet transplantation is limited by the scarcity of donors and graft failure within a few years, efforts have recently concentrated on the use of stem cells to replace the deficient
-cells. Currently, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells achieve high levels of
-cell differentiation, but their clinical use is still hampered by ethical issues and/or the risk of developing tumors after transplantation. Pancreatic epithelial cells (duct, acinar, or-cells) represent an appealing alternative to stem cells because they demonstrate
-cell differentiation capacities. Yet translation of such capacity to human cells after significant in vitro expansion has yet to be achieved. Besides providing new
-cells, cell therapy also has to address the question on how to protect the transplanted cells from destruction by the immune system via either allo- or autoimmunity. Encouraging developments have been made in encapsulation and immunomodulation techniques, but many challenges still remain.