Posted on 05/22/2003 9:33:13 PM PDT by yonif
Tel Aviv University and American researchers have managed to cure diabetes in mice by creating insulin-producing cells from stem cells taken from the liver of a four-month-old miscarried human embryo and implanting them into Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetic mice.
Prof. Shimon Efrat of the department of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine at TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and colleagues in Israel and the US hope that eventually such cells could be transplanted into human diabetics if a way is found to protect them from rejection through an autoimmune attack.
The genetically engineered human cells will theoretically be ready for clinical trails in two or three years, but in order it to become practical, some capsules or other "vehicle" that holds and protects the cells from being attacked by the body's immune system must be developed. The team is working on such a vehicle, as are many other teams abroad, but so far no one has succeeded.
The important development the first time that an unlimited supply of insulin-producing human cells has been developed was reported in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the [US] Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Efrat, who returned from Israel a few years ago after working at Yeshiva University's Einstein College of Medicine, worked for 12 years on mice cells. Three years ago, the team advanced to human cells.
"There have been suggestions of a synthetic structure to hold the insulin-producing cells while protecting them from an autoimmune attack, but it hasn't yet proved itself. It's likely that a combined technique will be developed," Efrat said. "If the cells become part of body tissue, with blood supply, it could be a one-time implantation, but if in a capsule, they would have to be implanted from time to time."
The embryonic cells were grown in a tissue culture. The team, which included scientists from Einstein and the University of California at Sacramento, showed that these cells can produce a third of the amount of insulin normally secreted in the body by beta cells in a normal pancreas.
That would be enough to cure Type I diabetes, which occurs when the body's immune system mistaken recognizes beta cells as "strangers," attacks them and destroys them. The body suddenly has no insulin to metabolize sugar in the blood, which can cause death without insulin injections. Another treatment is a pancreas transplant, but the supply of organs is short and the recipient has to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.
The development is also expected to help patients with Type II diabetes, who produce some insulin but whose body suffers from insulin resistance, making its use inefficient. About a third of these patients have to inject themselves with synthetic insulin. If blood sugar levels are not kept in balance with insulin levels, the patient is at higher risk for a stroke, heart disease, blindness, and limb amputation.
Not good enough... unless its grown from the existing strains, we will have to destroy this cure and keep trying...
One way of putting it - another way might be a scientific apparatus unbridled. If we put limitations on our own people, someone else will do it... or our scientists will simply go when they can do research uncontrolled.
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