"vguidera" <vguidera@NoSpam_bellsouth.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Well, then again, perhaps if you are a mouse a tiny trumpet solo is in order?
:O Vince
Further information:
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Last Updated: Friday, 14 November, 2003, 00:37 GMT
Breakthrough sparks diabetes hope
news.bbc.co.uk3266987.stmOpen ↗
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A cure for diabetes could be a step closer after scientists found cells from the spleen can
transform into insulin-pro- ducing cells. US researchers were able to halt, and even reverse, the
disease in mice.
The research offers hope to people with Type 1 diabetes who need insulin injections to survive. The
team from Massachusetts General Hospital, whose announcement coincided with World Diabetes Day on
Friday, hope to begin human trials soon.
Type 1 diabetes affects around 350,000 people in the UK.
People with the condition do not produce insulin, needed to convert sugar into fuel and normally
produced in the pancreas in cells called islet cells. Their islet cells are destroyed by the body's
own immune system, leading to sugar building up dangerously in the blood.
'Re-educating the immune system'
The US researchers had already shown that injecting dia- betic mice with spleen cells from healthy
mice re-educated their immune systems so that they could accept an islet cell transplant. But the
mice unexpectedly began producing islet cells that could secrete insulin themselves.
This latest research found this only happened if the mice had been given a specific type of spleen
cell. They can be distinguished from other spleen cells because they lack a particular molecule
called CD45. Scientists had believed it was impossible to regenerate insulin-secreting islet cells.
To double-check their findings, researchers carried out the same treatment, giving female diabetic
mice spleen cells from healthy male cells. They found that in diabetic mice that achieved long-term
normal glucose metabolism, all of the new functioning islets had significant numbers of cells with Y
chromosomes, showing they had come from the male donors.
In a further experiment, donor spleen cells were marked with a fluorescent green protein, and again
these cells were found throughout the newly developed islets.
'Rescue' hope
Denis Faustman, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory who led the
research, said: "It's the cells without CD45 that are the precursors for pancreatic islets. They
have a distinct function that has not previously been identified for the spleen."
Dr David Nathan, director of the hospital's Diabetes Center, added: "These exciting findings in a
mouse model of Type 1 diabetes suggest that patients who are developing this disease could be
rescued from further destruction of their insulin-producing cells. "In addition, patients with fully
established diabetes possibly could have their diabetes reversed."
Dr Eleanor Kennedy, research director for Diabetes UK , said "The initial results of this research
are potentially very exciting for people with diabetes. Reversing the onset of Type 1 diabetes by
turning adult precursor cells from the spleen into insulin-producing cells is a new approach.
"Previously research has concentrated on embryonic stem cells. This new breakthrough reopens the
debate on what other types of cells are capable of. This research is in the very early stages and a
lot more work still needs to be done.
"Diabetes UK will be watching the progress with interest."
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Quoted message said:
"Charly Coughran" <ccoughran@DELETE_TO_REPLY_ucsd.edu> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:"Pro-Humanist FREELOVER" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:3fb51400_1 @news.ghg.net:
Quoted message said:November 15, 2003
Excerpt:
A cure for insulin-dependent diabetes may be in sight after United States scientists not only
halted the disease in mice, but reversed it.
Planned patient trials could lead to a cure for the disorder, scientists say.
It is an interesting article (Kodama, et. al., Islet Regeneration During the Reversal of
Autoimmune Diabetes in NOD Mice, Science 302,1223, the current issue). I would strongly suggest,
however, that nobody start holding their breath. Things that hold true in animal models only
have a low probability of holding true in people.
The NOD mouse has a very specific and well understood defect which is the source of the
autoimunnity. The treatment was focused specifically at that defect. The source of human
pancreatic autoimunnity is not so well understood and probably multi factorial given the range
of presentations.
It is interesting, neat work, and certainly should be followed up, but trumpets are a bit
premature.
Charly Coughran [email hidden]
