Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Posted on 02/21/2006 7:24:41 PM PST by Coleus
Researchers said this week that adult stem cells in the pancreas can be transformed into insulin-producing cells.
This newfound ability of endocrine progenitor stem cells in the adult human pancreas provides a major key to developing new treatments for diabetes, said researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego.
The findings will be published in the March 1 edition of Nature Medicine.
"We hypothesized that the inductive factors in developing pancreatic cells might work on cells in the adult pancreas and that turned out to be true," said Fred Levine, adjunct professor at the Burnham.
"We have shown, in as rigorous a manner as possible, proof-of-concept for the existence of progenitor stem insulin-producing cells within the adult human pancreas. Our proven ability to transform these progenitor stem cells into insulin-producing cells greatly expands the possibility that beta cell regeneration therapies can be developed for the treatment of diabetes," he said.
"Prior to our study, it was thought that replication of beta cells arising from injury to the pancreas was the only regenerative source of beta cells in the adult pancreas. We now know that we have another, potentially more abundant, reservoir," Levine said.
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are characterized by the loss and dysfunction of insulin-producing cells, also known as beta cells, the researchers said.
In the current study, researchers developed rigorous purification and cell culture techniques and used them to glean adult human pancreatic cells, incapable of producing insulin, which they called "non-endocrine pancreatic epithelial cells", or NEPECS.
To find out if this cell population could be induced to produce insulin, they labeled the NEPECS with genetic markers and combined them with developing pancreatic cells known to be a rich source of endocrine progenitor cells and growth factors that spur the progenitor cells' development into insulin-producing beta cells.
The cells were then transplanted into mice, and after three months, tissue from the mice was examined. The researchers found that the NEPECS labeled with the genetic marker included insulin-producing beta cells.
I sure hope this pans out. I've got a 13 year old son that could really use it.
Me too. My guy is 6 years old.
Me too. My guy is 6 years old.
That's how old our boy was when he first got sick. It was heartbreaking spending 4 days in the hospital with him. We thought he might die when it first happened. It gets easier to deal with over time, but it never gets "easy".
Mine was actually 18 mo old when diagnosed. He does'nt remember NOT having diabetes. I read the articles linked by Coleus,I did'nt know JDRF was so singularly focused on ESC research.
Me too. My guy is 14.
I will add this to my newest page!
http://www.rusthompson.com/TheTruthStemCellResearch.html
Thank you Coleus!If this has a ping list please add me.
This would be a wonderful thing for SO many people. I hope it pans out.
The successes of Adult Stem Cell research just keep rolling in!
I still refuse to give one penny to ESC research (for both moral and pragmatic reasons).
Thanks for the good news, Coleus.
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Me too. Mine is age 15 and was dxed at age 2.
Lots of us here it seems....my son is 15 now and has been insulin dependent since age 2.
I'm a Type I for 26 years. One of the tricks is always whether the immune system will reject the new beta cells again. A lot of stuff doesn't work out between animal and human tests, and some of it (e.g., beta-cell transplants from cadavers) turns out to fade in effectiveness over time. Still, it's interesting.
We stopped supporting them way back when so much of their funding was about prevention/vaccines, etc. Not exactly the work for a cure that they advertise themselves as funding. It was interesting that year to see what they actually did fund, and the clear majority of it was about prevention.
The Iacocca Foundation is very supportive of Dr.Denise Faustman who is doing good things with ASC's at Mass. General. Lee Iacocca's wife Mary died of diabetic complications and his foundation seems to be truly focused on findinga cure. Is your son on the pump?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.