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UK Doctors Cure Type 1 Diabetes
ayden writes "The BBC is
reporting that a 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.
More
info
here."
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Type II can become (and often does) Type I
Unfortunately, it's a poor name. 50% of Type I diagnosises occur in people above the age of 18.
I kid you not.
It works great and it doesn't harm my septic tank!
Leave it for an hour or overnight and flush in the morning.
Now if pop can do that, imagine what it does inside you!
Pepsi works too.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
I doubt this will become the standard of care for type I diabetics.
Why? This treatment is very complicated, costly, invovles suppressing the immune system (which has its own problems), and has had very limited success in the past. Pancreas transplantations are really nothing new (they've been doing them with bilateral kidney tranpslants for years); what's more novel here is that they've transplanted only the islet cells from the pancreas. The thing is, whatever causes type I diabetes in the first place, by killing the islet cells, has killed the transplanted iselt cells in previous attempts.
I'm doubtful but hopeful.
Oh, and for those with Type-II diabetes in the family, this has no relevance to you whatsoever. Sorry; the mechanism of the disease is different, though the results (too much sugar in the blood) is the same. In short, in type-I, the body doesn't produce enough insulin, and in type-II, the body is insulin-resistant (ie, less responsive to insulin).
so one dead donor can help cure tens, maybe hundreds of afflicted patients?s ulin.html more than one donor is required for each transplant.
Unfortunately not. As reported here http://www.channel4.com/news/2005/03/week_2/09_in
Not true - Type II is where your body isn't correctly using the insulin it has, Type I is where the body simply doesn't make enough. Anyone (including myself) who has ever "progressed" from Type II to Type I was simply mis-diagnosed in the first place, and was always Type I.
Nipok Nek
Why choose white shoes?
This is being tried today.
Like insulin when it first appeared, it was cow and sheep insulin. It wasn't until years later that Humulin was developed (synthetic human insulin to you layman).
This is the first step and assuming it works as well as it appears from this write up, then wholesale cloning of the pancreas tissue will follow.
And for those that think this has no bearing on type II diabetis, you are shortshighted, at best, and wrong at worst. ANY time you cure a related desease, some of it becomes a significant gain to all the other related deseases.
I'm happy even if it only cures Type I. Even though I am a type II, my brother is a type I and it wll probably help him. It's too late for my Mom.
Not sure how this has been missed, but unless I'm mistaken, this is *not* the first time we've seen islet cell transplantation to correct Type I diabetes in patients with insulin-dependant diabetes mellitus (IDDM). From http://www.diabetes.org.uk/islets/trans/edmonton.h tm
"The 'Edmonton' protocol is a procedure developed in Canada for transplanting healthy islet cells into people with Type 1 diabetes.
The series of islet transplantations carried out by James Shapiro and his team since March 1999 has enjoyed levels of success that are unprecedented in the field of islet transplantation surgery.
Since the Edmonton transplantation research trial began, 48 patients have undergone 92 islet infusions in Canada. The most recent statistics from Edmonton (January 2003) state that one year after transplantation 84 per cent of patients remain insulin free and that after three years, 89 per cent of patients are still producing insulin. Previous islet cell transplants have only succeeded in around eight per cent of cases.
In addition to the work being carried out in Canada, approximately 200 patients have received islet transplants using the 'Edmonton' protocol or varients of the process in several centres worldwide. There are now almost 75 programmes planned to become activated within the next six to 12 months."
Also, check this link from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research:
http://www.ahfmr.ab.ca/publications/newsletter/Sum mer00/sum00/inside/diabetes.feat.htm
That's incorrect, sorry.
:) Ask a doctor if you're interested in the details of this :)
Type I, associated with a death of the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas (due to an autoimmune reaction) can indeed come from Type II diabetes.
What typically happens, is that the first stage of NIDD (non-insulin dependent diabetes) occurs when body tissues become insulin resistant. The levels of insulin increase, as the typical levels don't reduce blood glucose sufficiently (due to a change in insulin receptors. The down-regulation comes in response to overstimulation).
After a long enough period of this Type II diabetes, the insulin producing islet cells actually cease production and/or undergo senescence or apoptosis.
When this happens, the body actually stops producing insulin - the person becomes Type 1 diabetic.
It is rare when the Type 2 diabetes is managed sufficiently, but it is a known outcome.
Disclaimer: I'm a biochemist, not a medical doctor
Reporting (on Quirks & Quarks sci show)
success rates aproaching 90% from memory,
albeit with some side-effects.
The idea was to transplant islet cells
from a healthy person into the Type 1
sufferer.
People queued for the chance to join the
medical trials around the world.
Then came word that the transplants could
come from pigs, instead of human donors...
So, what's new...?