SUMMARY: Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists are reporting success in generating insulin-producing cells using skin cells from Type 1 diabetes patients. The achievement marked the first step toward finding a way of replacing a patient's faulty insulin-making cells with healthy ones. The experiment also provided a model - in a petri dish - of how Type 1 diabetes develops. Knowing this information might lead to new stem-cell-based treatments and novel drug therapies that might improve the symptoms of the disease.Douglas Melton, co-director of HSCI, and his team took skin cells from two Type 1 diabetes patients and converted the cells back to an embryonic state. These newly reborn cells are referred to as pluripotent stem cells. The scientists then instructed these cells to grow into beta cells, the cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin. In Type 1 diabetics such beta cells are unable to break down glucose in the body that can lead to blood-sugar spikes and damage to the kidneys and heart. When exposed to glucose in a dish, the lab-made cells were able to produce more of a protein that beta cells release in order to break down sugar.
Researchers still need to learn how diabetes begins. They think some type of immune reaction has gone awry. Immune cells are "trained" in the thymus gland to recognize and protect a body's own cells from destruction, but in Type 1 diabetes patients, such instruction doesn't seem to properly take place. Melton's team is now trying to generate thymus cells from diabetic patients in the same way they created beta cells so that all the "players" are together in a lab dish. They hope to learn whether diabetes begins in the thymus or in the pancreas where beta cells somehow change and no longer are recognized or protected by the immune system.
As methods of making beta cells become more established, patients with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes could be helped. Before that will happen though, Melton says the newly formed beta cells will be a valuable resource for better understanding Type 1 diabetes.
(Picture of diabetes patient injecting insulin, from Wikimedia Commons)
To read the entire article, click on this link to YAHOO NEWS/TIME.
COMMENT: From time to time the LSI Blog has reported on successes for pluripotent or adult stem cell research or failures using embryonic stem cells. Here are some of these posts:
The Making of Pluripotent Cells Becomes Even Safer (6/03/09)
Repairing Damaged Bones Without Surgery (4/08/09)
New Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells are Virus-Free (3/09/09)
Boy Gets Tumors from Fetal Stem Cell Treatment (2/20/09)
Adult Stem Cells Reverse Paralysis in Rats (1/30/09)
Woman Doing Well With Transplanted Windpipe (11/21/08)
During the same period I have not noticed any claims for major successes by researchers specializing in embryonic stem cells. So, I ask it again. Why are so many people still talking about and why is the government planning to fund a type of research that appears to produce so little? I know the Lord is more pleased with medical research that does not destroy living human embryos or fetuses. He is the creator of life and the only One who can give us eternal life which He does through our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
How many baseballs does a major league team use in a year?Over 7,000. A big league ball lasts just 3 or 4 pitches. On average, a team will use up to 8 dozen balls a game. The 30 teams together will use more than 220,000 in a season.
Source: Parade magazine (August 9, 2009)
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