Posted on 05/13/2013 11:43:36 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers have made a significant first step with newly engineered biomaterials for cell transplantation that could help lead to a possible cure for Type 1 diabetes, which affects about 3 million Americans.
Georgia Tech engineers and Emory University clinicians have successfully engrafted insulin-producing cells into a diabetic mouse model, reversing diabetic symptoms in the animal in as little as 10 days.
The research team engineered a biomaterial to protect the cluster of insulin-producing cells -- donor pancreatic islets -- during injection. The material also contains proteins to foster blood vessel formation that allow the cells to successfully graft, survive and function within the body.
"It's very promising," said Andrés Garcia, Georgia Tech professor of mechanical engineering. "There is a lot of excitement because not only can we get the islets to survive and function, but we can also cure diabetes with fewer islets than are normally needed."
The research article -- a partnership with Emory's Dr. Robert Taylor and Dr. Peter Thule that was funded in part by the JDRF, the leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes research -- will be published in the June issue of the journal Biomaterials.
Organizations such as JDRF are dedicated to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone that allows the transport of sugar and other nutrients into tissues where they are converted to energy needed for daily life.
Pancreatic islet transplantation re-emerged as a promising therapy in the late 1990s. Patients with diabetes typically find it difficult to comply with multiple daily insulin injections, which only partially improve long-term outcomes. Successful islet transplantation would remove the need for patients to administer insulin. While islet transplantation trials have had some success, and control of glucose levels is often...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Simple Tool Stratifies Mortality Risk in Type 2 Diabetes Note some puzzling findings.
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
P.S. FReepmail gets my attention better than pings.
Are they taking volunteers for human trials? Let me guess, in about thirty years. Longer, if the FDA gets involved.
Need work on type 2, because even when you lose the weight, it hangs over you for the rest of your life, and some of the drugs are exceptionally nasty with side effects. Eldest son has it, and it cost him his LD trucking job. Looking for something local, but it won’t pay nearly as much. But will improve his health.
Ping
Ping to self
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