JC,
Not so fast.
Susan Bonner-Weir from Joslin Diabetes Center was one of the
speakers at the AACE meetings last week in Boston last week
on this. Her husband, Gordon Weir, is the head of islet
transplantation at Harvard Medical School and gave a
separate presentation at the AACE meetings. (FYI, Gordon was
my boss when I was at Joslin.)
She is quoted in today's Wall Street Journal as follows:
"Some scientists said they aren't convinced that embryos are
the only route. "We still believe there may be other cells
in the body that give rise to (the needed) beta cells," says
Susan Bonner-Weir, also a Harvard researcher based at the
Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
Dr. Bonner-Weir and others who disagree with Dr. Melton's
analysis say the new report confirms another important
finding. The new report suggests insulin-making cells
regenerate themselves in the body, although they do so
in only small amounts. This means scientists also may be
able to make islets in the lab from existing beta cells,
suggesting another way to avoid the embryo controversy."
Bear in mind that islet cell research has become mired in
the political controversy over fetal stem cells. That is
REALLY unfortunate.
AACE polled its members on taking an active stance in favor
of liberalizing the restrictions on fetal stem cell
research. I haven't heard the results yet, but I would be
extremely surprised if it didn't carry with a vast majority.
Most Americans have the misunderstanding that aborted
fetuses are the source for stem cells. In fact, the origins
of the fetal stem cell lines are "unused" embryos from in-
vitro fertilizations.
Here are the pros & cons to fetal vs adult stem cells:
Fetal
Pro: Probably easier to grow and differentiate into islets.
Possibly could grow large batches serving multiple
patients for transplant.
Con: Religious and Political problems in US
Could be rejected as transplanted tissue or need
long term immunosuppression.
Adult Stem Cell
Pro: If harvested from the person needing the transplant,
there would be no rejection and no need for anti-
rejection drugs.
No political problems
Con: Finding enough stem cells in adult, getting them to
differentiate into islets is likely to be harder to do.
IMHO, if we could have either method, I would prefer getting
adult stem cells from the person who needs the transplant.
They free of the need for anti-rejection drugs, but would
still need protection from the autoimmunity that caused the
type 1 diabetes to begin with.
ALSO, most of the articles you read talk about treating only
TYPE 1 with islets. Only 10% of DM patients are type 1, so
there is a smaller constituency interested in seeing the
technology advance.
The truth of the matter is that TYPE 2 could also benefit
from transplants. Type 2 patients all have a relative
deficiency of insulin and premature demise of the islets.
They too would benefit from this technology.
My opinion: Push both fetal and adult stem research as much
as possible, and ignore the squabbling between the two
camps. Raise the awareness that type 2's (the other 90%)
will benefit from this as well. You will need the political
muscle they add.
William C Biggs, MD
"J.C. Hartmann" <[email hidden]> wrote in message -"]news:[email hidden]-
berlin.de...
Quoted message said:hhmi.orgmelton5.htmlOpen ↗
Synopsis: Researchers have learned that adult stem cells
are not effective in re-growing islet beta cells in Type-
1 diabetics. By marking beta cells, they have learned
that new ones are regenerated from remaining betas. So, a
T-1 would have to have some remaining betas for
regeneration to occur. There may still be hope using
embryonic stem cells.
The research is based on mice.
Jim
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