Cell Transplant CURES type 1 Diabetes

[whoa182]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4330717.stm

 

61-year-old man has become the first person in the UK to be cured of type 1 diabetes thanks to a groundbreaking cell transplant technique

 

:Alien:

[MortenS]

This is an experimental method here in Norway too. I know a few that have got injections of pancreas cells into their liver. So far (here in Norway), the method is only applied on diabetes I patients that have undergone kidney transplantation, since they are going to be on immune-suppressive drugs anyway.

[OpenMind5]

Wow! We are really coming along! BUt why the liver?

 

Op5

[MortenS]

well, a few reasons I can think of:

1. ease of access. The liver is pretty easy to get access to with a syringe, and it will be a minimal invasive procedure.

2. blood-flow is very good in the liver

[OpenMind5]

Kool, one more question...any idea of what they are doing for type 2? In strides in that area?

 

Op5

[beccareb]

I know a few other people have been cured of type 1 diabetes by cell transplantation. I know the technology is very far from being practical and safe enough to be widespread. Most people with type 1 diabetes try not to get there hopes up to much because this has happened a few times since the early 1990's.

 

Type 2 diabetes is a completely different problem and probably will never be cured. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that arrises when the body kills the cells that make insulin. This being said, the idea of what the cure is is relatively straightforward; find a way for these people to make their own insulin again. Type 2 diabetes is a true endocrine disorder. The problem is that the people do not produce enough insulin and/or they cannot absorb it properly. The problem is that many scientists are not even sure what they should do to try and cure type 2 diabetes. Some severe type 2 diabetics may be cured by an islet cell tranplant, most type 2 diabetics probably have a problem that will only ever be able to be treated.

[whoa182]

I wouldnt say never. Im sure they will come up with something, Especially with all this advancing techhnologies in Biotech and Nanotech

 

Also hasnt ray kurzweil sorta cured his own type 2 diabetes...

 

I believe we'll see diabetes cured within the next 5-10 years :)

 

Knowledge used to double every 1500 years. Now its estimated that knowledge in the medical community is doubling at a much faster rate, its doubling at a rate of around every 2 years.

 

The reason its doubling so much quicker is becuase we are seeing a rapid convergence of biotech, informtion tech and nanotech.

 

At some point in the near future its expected that we may be doubling knowledge every 6 months in the NEAR future and by 2010 about every 50 days

 

Things are happening a lot faster these days :)

[Biochemist]

I believe we'll see diabetes cured within the next 5-10 years B)

I am glad you put a little smiley on that. "Curing" either diabetic category soon is unlikely. We may well get some significant improvement in treatment, however.

 

Type II diabetes has a number of different forms. (Type II is also called "adult onset" diabetes, type I is often called juvenile onset.) It does appear that most type I patients have lost ther functioning beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. It is presumed to be secondary to auto immune activity in most folks, and has been demonstrated in at least some.

 

Type II disease is more heterogeneous. These people all have a poor response to a carbohydrate load (e.g., their blood sugar gets too high too fast, or stays high too long) but some of these folks are hyperinsulinemic, some are normoinsulinemic, and some are hypoinsulinemic. These the first two categories of Type II folks are typically called "insulin resistent" because they have enough insulin around, but it doesn't work well enough. Most of these folks do respond to more insulin.

 

Type II thus appears to be more heterogeneous than Type I. Most of these folks really can solve the problem by losing weight. It appears that getting chubby alone precipitates insuling resistance in many patients. It apparently does something to mess up the insulin receptors.

 

Maybe they just get all greasy and the little insulin molecules can't hold on. Just kidding.

[Zythryn]

"I believe we'll see diabetes cured within the next 5-10 years"

 

While the treatment and advances of knowledge about diabetes grow every year, I have been hearing those exact words since about 1972 ;o)

 

I agree that the islet cell transplants and the more recent islet cell transplants from pigs into monkeys have had very promising results. However, I am personally more exited about the recent FDA approval of inhalable short acting insulin. It may reduce my injections from 4 to 2:)

[InfiniteNow]

I am personally more exited about the recent FDA approval of inhalable short acting insulin. It may reduce my injections from 4 to 2:)

Try getting a pump. It reduced my injections from 3 to zero... I also got my black belt in kung fu after going on the pump... can't even dream of going back to injections.

 

...well, maybe in a nightmare. :)

 

http://www.minimed.com/

 

 

Cheers. :)

[MortenS]

Move to strike...I have already posted in this thread :)