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Posted on 02/20/2006 8:09:21 AM PST by Red Badger
Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say.
A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study in Nature Medicine reports.
UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells - but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution.
The University of Minnesota hopes to start trials in humans by 2009.
The university's researchers argue that animal-to-human transplants may be necessary to make islet transplantation a viable solution for the tens of thousands of people who suffer from diabetes.
This research may have huge future potential in the treatment of people with Type 1 diabetes, but a great deal more work is needed Jo Brodie Diabetes UK To overcome rejection of the pig cells, which has been a problem in the past with work such as this, the team worked to perfect a combination of drugs.
With the final drugs regime, all five monkey transplant recipients survived and their diabetes was reversed.
Associate professor of surgery and lead investigator Bernhard Hering said: "These results suggest it is feasible to use pig islet cells as a path to a far-reaching cure for diabetes."
He said the work had crucially allowed for a better understanding of the monkey's immune response following islet transplantation.
This was key if pig islet cells were to be used ultimately in humans, Professor Hering said.
However, the drugs used to suppress cell rejection have severe side-effects in humans and need to be refined.
Donor organs
"Now that we have identified critical pathways involved in immune recognition and rejection of pig islet transplants, we can begin working on better and safer therapies with the eventual goal of bringing the treatment into people," he added.
Nonetheless, Professor Hering suggested if clinical trials in humans began within three years, and everything went to plan, the procedure could be used more widely in humans within a decade.
Trials involving the transplant of islets from a donated human pancreas to a diabetes patient are currently ongoing at Oxford's Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Once the cells are removed from the donated organ they are injected directly into the patient's liver in what is a fairly simple procedure.
If successful, the cells will enable the patient to make his own insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels, like non-diabetics.
Preventing rejection
The advantage of islet transplantation is that it stops patients from having to have the regular insulin injections.
Jo Brodie, islet project coordinator at Diabetes UK, said: "A major limiting factor in the use of either whole pancreas or islet cell transplantation is the lack of available donor organs.
"This research offers the potential for a new source of islet cells without the need for patients to be given anti-rejection drugs which have serious side effects.
"This research may have huge future potential in the treatment of people with Type 1 diabetes, but a great deal more work is needed.
"Also, serious ethical issues still need addressing as xenotransplantations are not currently undertaken in the UK."
'Work to do'
Paul Johnson, director of the Oxford islet transplantation programme, said there was no doubt islet transplantation could cure a significant number of people.
"The shortage of donor organs means we either have to turn to human stem cells or animal cells as an alternative.
"This is an advance but there's still a lot of work to be done before we can apply it to humans."
The Minnesota team is now building bio-secure laboratories that meet US federal regulations for using animal tissues in humans.
The goal is to have suitable donor pigs available when the team has refined its methods of preventing the recipient from rejecting the donated cells.
The heart valves of pigs have been used in hundreds of thousands of heart transplants, and pig cells have shown promise in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
Gulf Arabs have disproportionally high rates of diabetes...
I wonder how the Pig Cure will go over with them, lol.
Tough donuts for devout muslim diabetics.
OBL will be the first in line.
No cure for Mohammad! Awww too bad....
[/SARCASM]
Merde!
Dr. Hering is the Tiger Woods of his field. Brilliant man, works incessantly, has other remarkable results in his work w/ the Diabetes Institute.
In his own words he said, regarding diabetes, "the cure is at hand."
Lakey and Shapiro got all the headlines, deservedly so, awhile back with the Edmonton protocal, but their research is outdated. Now Hering is the holder of the relevant intellectual information regarding islet cell transplants.
To talk to patients who have been 'cured' by him, gives this parent of a diabetic true belief.
In the meantime, does it help to eat ham sandwiches? or pork rinds?
Credits to http://www.londonstimes.us/toons/index_animals.html via google
They may be on to something here. If they would announce that they will be using body parts from suicide bombers for their research it may stop that practice altogether.
Certainly explains Michael Moore and Hillarys apparent aversion to the disease. Though hoof and mouth are still in the running.
I believe Type II is more common, I hope there is a cure in the pipeline for that also.
Islets of Langerhans bump! I already have the appetite of a pig, why not its pancreas?
I hop it's true.
Hah! Clearly it is just another Zionist plot...
hop = hope
Type II is far more common (estimated to be anywhere from 90-95% of cases). Type 1 is the elite corps.
I'm hoping he can perfect this so diabetics don't have to replace their daily (or more) injections of insulin with daily rounds of anti-rejection meds.
Pride and Prejudice, I hope.......
Hering is aligned w/ a separate entity that is perfecting a cell coating that is, in effect, invisible to the body. This coating, which is seaweed based(does that balance out the pig donor concerns?), would hopefully eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs.
I have read of research to genetically engineer pigs that have "human" characteristics to their cells. This would help avoid rejection by the patient.
As a parent of a type 1 diabetic, hopes of a cure have been artificially raised before only to be disappointed by the "details".
I've heard mention of the coating idea, but haven't read any details. Do you have any links?
Even the immunosuppressives used by Dr. Hering are better than Lakey and Shapiro. Much better. Far less toxic, and designed to be used for relatively short periods of time-maybe a year.
But, as these things go...it'll take another 30 years of "study" before the FDA will bother to approve anything.
I've often wondered whatever happened to those reports of mice/rats having their severed spinal cords regenerated, with, apparently, full mobility restored.
I'm sure that, too, requires more "study" before human testing.
If you were paralyzed, would you worry about potential side effects from ANY treatment that showed promise?
One can only hope! I recommend starting that therapy immediately -- just in case.
There's a large supply of suicide bombers, maybe we can just do human cell transplants directly from them. Of course, it's hard to find the pancreas after they blow up. See, there's always some problem.
Whats the side effects? An obcession for mud baths?
Nothing, except a sudden aversion to football games.......
Science speak for "We need more money from the government so we can study it some more.".........
They learn that line early in science school.
That said it is a pretty exciting possibility.
Several of my wife's relatives are diabetic. They are already pigs.....
I sure wouldn't. The side effects would be the least I'd worry about.
That's news from 2 days ago. Yesterday's news came from California and concerned the stimulation of beta-cell progenitor cells out of ordinary pancreatic cells. This will be published March 1. Wait for it.
The researchers at the University of Minnesota's Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation, say they hope to increase islet supply to cure type 1 diabetes; they believe such transplants could provide a diabetes cure within a decade. The team were able to reverse the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases. Islets are groups of cells located in the pancreas that make hormones that help the body break down and use food. They worked to perfect a combination of drugs and the survival of the pig islet transplants was made possible with this new immunosuppressive protocol. This meant the genetic modification of donor pigs or the coating or encapsulation of the donor islets, was not needed.
Researchers have already had success reversing type 1 diabetes in humans through islet transplantation, but the demand for islet cells considerably outweighs the supply. So in order to make islet transplantation a viable solution for the tens of thousands of people with difficult-to-manage diabetes, a safe and reliable source of islet cells needed to be found. Working towards the goal of using this technology to help people, Spring Point Project, a non-profit corporation, has taken concrete steps to build and operate biosecure barrier facilities to raise high-health pigs for planned pig islet transplant trials in humans.
As it will take time to build such biosecure facilities for using animal tissues in humans, the Spring Point Project will proceed on a parallel track with the research at the University. The aim is to have suitable donor pigs available by the time the University has refined the immunosuppressive treatment to a such a point that makes it safe for clinical trials to begin. Associate professor of surgery and lead investigator Bernhard Hering says if the research continues to be successful, he believes it may be possible to start clinical trials in humans in the next three years.
Professor Hering says however that the drugs used to suppress cell rejection have severe side-effects in humans and need to be refined. He says that now they have identified the critical pathways involved in immune recognition and rejection of pig islet transplants, they can begin working on better and safer therapies. The process is performed by isolating islet cells from a donor pancreas and transplanting them into the portal vein of the liver in people with diabetes.
If successful, transplanted islets will sense blood glucose levels on a minute-to-minute basis and release the appropriate amount of insulin to achieve tight blood glucose control. Insulin injections are no longer needed in recipients of successful transplants. Transplantation also offers hope in reducing the risk of developing debilitating secondary complications of diabetes, such as damage to the heart and blood vessels, eyes, nerves, and kidneys.
The advantage of islet transplantation is that it stops patients from having to have the regular insulin injections. The heart valves of pigs have been used in hundreds of thousands of heart transplants, and pig cells are widely used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The research is published in Nature Medicine.
"Excuse me, Ahmed, what does the doctor say?"
"He says you're going to die, Your Highness."
Maybe we ARE valuable after all!
That is certainly the problem. Those who have gotten the transplants are, in a different way, as sick as they were before.
My wife has type 1 and it is certainly exciting to see that there are treatment options coming from so many directions.
There have been very few cures for anything.
Other than that, I'd say you're probably right.
I don't wear a tin-foil hat, but I have pondered the financial implications of finding "cures" for everything from cancer to the common cold.
Think about it.
I'm not sure it would be the same type of thing as chronic diseases or terminal diseases like cancer and diabetes.
We have family members with Huntington's Disease. We would love for there to be a "cure" for that. I'm not holding my breath. I wish I were more optimistic.
I understand Huntington's is devastating; I'm sorry you've had to deal with it.
Isn't that what Woody Guthrie suffered from?
Yes. My siter's husband, father in law, brother in law, as well as many other of their relatives have died of HD. She also has to live with the pain of knowing her two sons possibly will have it.
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