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Scientists find way to cure diabetes?
Monday December 13, 2010 05:31:39 PM,
IANS
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London: A cure for
diabetes may have been found -- at least in men.
Researchers have used slivers of testicular tissue to make
millions of healthy replacements for the faulty cells that trigger
the condition.
In experiments on mice, grafts of the lab-grown pancreatic cells
produced enough insulin to control blood sugar levels in diabetic
mice.
Although the work is at an early stage, US researchers believe it
could lead to a cure for men and boys with type-1 diabetes in
perhaps just five years, reports the Daily Mail.
The researchers, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in
Washington, started with tiny samples of tissue from human
testicles.
Using a cocktail of vitamins and growth factors, they transformed
them first into stem, or ‘master cells, and then into the beta
islet cells that produce insulin in the pancreas. The process took
around five weeks, said a Georgetown University release.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not make enough insulin, a
hormone key to the conversion of sugar into energy, or the insulin
that is made does not work properly.
In the latest study, immature cells that would normally go on to
form sperm were turned into healthy insulin-producing cells.
Layers of pancreatic cells were then grafted onto diabetic mice,
where they produced enough insulin to control blood sugar levels
for a week.
While this might not seem long, the researchers say it should be
possible to make the cells work for much longer - and for them to
produce enough insulin to benefit human diabetics.
Researcher Ian Gallicano of Georgetown University believes the
testicular cells, or spermatogonial stem cells, could succeed
whether other potential diabetes cures have failed.
Using a man's own cells as the source of the treatment would
sidestep any chance of the tissue being rejected by the body.
These findings were presented at American Society of Cell
Biology's annual conference.
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