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First Successful Cell Transplant Cures Diabetes
Iphtashu Fitz writes "A few months ago the 50th anniversary of the first organ transplant was celebrated. Over those 50 years surgeons have learned how to sucessfully transplant many organs and other body parts. Now it seems that Japanese surgeons have added yet another successful transplant to the list, having recently transplanted insulin-generating cells, known as Islets of Langerhans from a mother to her diabetic daughter. Three months after the surgery both mother and daughter appear to be completely healthy. Although the daughter no longer needs insulin she still needs to take powerful drugs to keep her immune system from rejecting the new cells. Researchers also still don't know if this procedure would work in many people with type 1 diabetes since in many of those cases their own immune system has destroyed their Islet cells."
What will China say about that?
The Custom Mary
With the advent of this new treatment, maybe thousands of diabetics could have the ability to live insulin-injection free. Yes, they do have to take anti-rejection drugs, but it is no different then taking the drugs for an organ transplant. Even if this is only a prelude to a new, more permenent treatment, the possibilities of this doing good with this new treatment is huge.
Here's the BBC article referenced by the post:
. stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4459523.stm
And, here's a related one from last month:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4332163
Thought it has the same conclusion
Still valuable research, no doubt.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
This procedure was, I believe, developed and first performed in Canada. The idea has been around for a few years.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
So the woman is not taking insulin anymore, but she is taking immuno-suppressants.
This means she has switched from one type of life-long medication to another type of life-long medication. Is this really a change for the better?
So why did I think of cell phones from the title of this article???
So, if implanted Islets can be used to replace insulin producing cells, then ones grown from the patients own stem cells can too. And without rejection.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
Is the pancreas like the liver, that if you take part out of a living human, transplant it in another person, both livers will grow back to their normal size. Will that happen with a pancreas, or is the mother stuck with 50% of her pancreas.
Nor is it clear whether the procedure would be as effective in people, like most of those with type 1 diabetes, whose own immune cells have destroyed their insulin-producing pancreatic cells.
How does this happen? Is this a problem with the immune system, or is it a problem with the pancreas?
If the immune system is responsible for the damage to the pancreas, then transplants won't work. We need to find out the cause.
If the problem is with the pancreas, I think a far more effective treatment will be genetic therapy. Since genes control how much of a protien or enzyme is made, if the gene is damaged due to mutation or any reason, that tissue might not function normally. If we can advance gene therapy, we can replace the malfunctioning DNA with working DNA.
I was told in high school health class that diabities is almost 100% due to diet or lack of exersize. I am glad to see we are getting better reasons than "he's fat and does not exersize, so that is why he got sick".
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
A friend of my mothers about 3 years ago had this same type of surgery done. She had type-II diabetes since she was a teenager and had required shots. She no longer has to take insulin shots twice daily which has now been replaced by the pill.
/.ers out there probably have friends with type-II diabeties and don't even know it.
I saw someone post something about whether this would actually change quality of life, and I can say from seeing those close to me, yes. My father died of pancratic cancer, and the cancer caused type-II diabeties, and the ammount of effort that had to be put into regulating insulin levels, taking your shots, checking your blood, it all adds up. To just take a pill in the morning instead is considerably easier.
Personally, I wouldn't like having to check my blood 3 times a day, and give myself injections on top of that. I'm sure most other people wouldn't like that either, to have that replaced by a pill would be a god send.
It is something that hits close to home, and I'm sure that many of you
-PB_TPU_40 The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Jeez, another person on the internet asking for money. If people really want to support a cause, or illness, find a research hospital or university to donate to. Don't give money to a begger on the internet, no matter what they promise or say. Who knows. It might be a kid who's good at web site programming in his parents basement asking for money to help cure cancer.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
As far as I know (being type I), immunosuppressant drugs are considered worse than insulin in general. IF your diabetes is well regulated, your health can be perfect. Immunosuppressants on the other hand seem to cause some risks.
The situation is different if the diabetes is not well regulated, for instance if the kidneys have been destroyed. In the latter case, when a kidney transplant necessitates immunosuppressants anyway, I believe it is quite common to also implant an extra pancreas (hopefully from a dead donor...) and this way curing the diabetes.
As I read the article the new thing is not to implant pancreas tissue, but rather that the donor is alive, which will of course increase the availability a little bit.
I think I have a pancreas. Not sure if I'm using it.
Insulin is not classified as a 'medication', but a hormone. I myself am diabetic (type 1) and would rather continue to take my 6 injections a day than have an operation and use drugs to combat my immune system. I really look forward to the day when there's a cure. I wish the japanese girl all the best tho !
This isn't new, unfortunately. Islet cell transplants have been happening for many years now. The first cases I heard of were in Russia, using islet cells from aborted foetuses (I gather such things are more readily available in Russia). But they've been doing it on a small scale in the UK for years, too, with success.
I'm not sure why we haven't seen this become a mainstream solution yet, but personally, I'm not holding my breath for any of the diabetes solutions that get mentioned by news reporters regularly. News services seem to like to this story so much that they declare a new "cure" each year... except that it'll be years before most people get it, if they get it.
In this type of diabetes the immune defence attacks the cells of the body. However, transplanting cells to the body would most likely cause a similar effect and this would only be partly effective.
A few years ago I went through a research project (Im type 1 diabetic) where the beta-cells (insulin producing cells) were put into an inactive status using cell supressing-drugs. This proved to make it so they survived much longer then the rapid "killing" of the beta-cells seen in most bodies at the time your immune-defence starts attacking these cells. They even kept producing insulin several months longer then they would if I didn't take these drugs.
Hopefully one day we'll find a way to cure diabetes. Im hoping myself that I'll be able to keep myself healthy, keep my eye-sight, feet until they find the solution.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/artic/pancreatic_isl et_transplantation_niddk.htm
"Scientists have made many advances in islet transplantation over the past 25 years. Dr. James Shapiro and colleagues at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, have used a new procedure called the Edmonton Protocol to treat eight patients with type 1 diabetes. These patients have been completely freed from insulin injections since the first transplant in mid-1999."
and:
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/cs/programs/pancr eas/research.html
"The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada was the first group to successfully maintain islet transplants using islets from two organ donors and a new steroid free immunosuppressive regimen."
and:
http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/pancreaticis let/
"Scientists have made many advances in islet transplantation in recent years. Since reporting their findings in the June 2000 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, have continued to use a procedure called the Edmonton protocol to transplant pancreatic islets into people with type 1 diabetes. A multicenter clinical trial of the Edmonton protocol for islet transplantation is currently under way, and results will be announced in several years. According to the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), as of June 2003, about 50 percent of the patients have remained insulin-free up to 1 year after receiving a transplant. A clinical trial of the Edmonton protocol is also being conducted by the ITN, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International."
Still... an amazing area of research and one hopes it leads to a more generally available cure for diabetes (without all the immunosuppresive side effects).
I tell you, we Americans need to get off our collective ass and start doing some medical research. In the next 10 years Asians will have cured cancer and AIDS while we're celebrating successful eyebrow surgery or something equally useless.
I thought the worst type of diabetes was when your cells don't recognize insulin at all. When the cell recepters that bind to insulin don't activate any response. Thus, transplanting some B-cells into the pancreas would do nothing.
As for creating stem cells from a patient to tranplant back into the patient to cure type I diabetes, aren't you just re-introducing cells proven not to work in the long run? You are giving a patient whose cells don't work, some more of the same cells??? I find gene therapy to be a more effective treatment. Gene therapy includes introducing 'genes' (duh) into specific cells. Hopefully into the pancreatic stem cells. This will allow the 'working' insulin gene to be ingrained into the patient and be cured forever.
Amazing what your country can do when your government hasn't banned some science and forbidden the rest.
Me American. Thump bible. That cure all! Bush say so.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
....she still needs to take powerful drugs to keep her immune system from rejecting the new cells
If these drugs are suppressing her immune system then it could make her more at risk to other illnesses. I used to know someone who had a kidney transplant and he lived a reasonably normal life for 10+ years. But he died because the drugs to suppress his immune system meant that he caught an infection he was unable to fight off.:(
cheers!
The [offline] article I read on this indicated that this case was unusual in that the girl did not have your standard type 1 diabetes but had developed it due to an inflammation of the pancreas when she was younger. As a result her immune system was not attacking her beta cells so this case is rather different from that in most type 1s whose bodies would attack implanted cells normally.
After that, mod this insightful.
Because it is anti-american?
Because it bashes the bible?
Apparently you are offended by both of the above, and silencing/censoring people who disagree with you is NOT the solution.
That's exactly what the grandparent poster stated and, well, proved right.
inderdaad.
But we already know a solution to that!
Get the cells transplanted. Contract AIDS, which will neutralize your immunity system, there, no more diabetes.
You see, the immunosuppressant drugs may be unpleasant, but they don't make you go blind.
The long term health effects of unstable blood sugar are absolutely awful, and they aren't reversible. They're systemic.
Thirty years from now when there's an even better solution to diabetes, you'd be glad to have the body that's been on suppressants instead of the body that's been on manually adjusted insulin.
gene therapy probably wouldnt help much.
What we need is to find out how the immune system is programmed, and find a way of changing it
(Hay fever suferer's of the world rejoice!)
The short answer is No. Immuno-suppressents are not as bad as they sound. Taking them is no big deal.
I've been on them for 4 years, since my kidney transplant. Contrary to popular belief they do not make you much more susceptible to every cold and flu going around. Obviously you are slightly more vulnerable to viral infections.. but in the last 4 years I have not suffered from any more illnesses than anyone else I know.
Generally its just one pill a day which replaces dozens of pills, a few injections and in my case, dialysis.
I believe the key here is it was a transplant from a living donor.
Not quite sure why this was so hard before. I think I'll need to look into this.
I'm not sure why we haven't seen this become a mainstream solution yet,
The religious right of course. There is NO way they're going to allow organ transplants from aborted foetuses (unless the feotus doesn't need to be human. Now there's an idea. Genetically modify animal X to have human Islet cells).
het weetenschap.
Ok, what sucks about diabetes is having to take the injections .. so now you have to take immunosuppressants? I hope they are pills (not injections) and that you still have a decent immune system left so you can fend off diseases.
Don't get me wrong I think it's great research etc. obviously.
First the Dutch invade the alt.bin* hierarchy, now /. - what is the world coming to?
Finally, someone reasonable. GP is absolute flamebait with no real thought provoking content, and get's modded +4 insightful? What has slashdot come to?
Thank you JS, for at least trying to be reasonable. You are a brave person.
The cocktail of immuno-suppressive drugs (in some form or another) is something you pretty much take for life after an organ transplant.
I am a physician, and I've never heard of people being completely weaned from drugs. If they were, they would run the risk of their immune system reasserting itself big and ugly, possibly resulting in an episode of acute rejection (which is no joke). I can see them trying to taper the dose down a bit, but immunosuppressive therapy remains the standard of care.
If this is something new, I'd love to see it happen, because those drugs are very problematic for patients. They not only leave you susceptible to common infections, but they also increase your risk for cancers.
Never underestimate how many potential cancers your immune system finds and kills early. You should see some of the post-transplant patients who have spent time in the sun... they grow skin cancers like it's their job.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
You still have to inject 'something' in your bloodsteam, if not insulin, then anti rejection drugs...
Drug for drug i'd still prefer to take insulin over anti rejection drugs; it has been tested and used for a long time and requires no surgical intervention.
- "They misunderestimated me."
Genetically modify? Play GOD? Yeah the religious right LOVES that one.
You might want to look into an insulin pump. I've been diabetic for just over 11 years, and I've been on a pump for 9. It's worlds away from multiple shots per day, and although I had to fight for the insurance to pay for my first pump, these days they're happy to pay for one.
Also, you might want to think about drinking that glass of OJ BEFORE you start the lawn mowing. You'd probably survive the heat and sun better.
As someone who takes Immunosupressants for a kidneytransplant, I can assure you that most, if not all immunosupressants, are orally taken medications which are much better than injecting anything. Less chance of injecting the wrong amount and not sticking anything into you skin are worth it. Modern immunosupressants have been in use since the mid-70s but there are many new ones that have come out in the last ten years.
My father has diebetes, and though immuno-depressing drugs do not sound so great, having his insulin level constantly in sync with his blood-sugar level should greatly help prevent diebetic complications (which are far worse than the daily dealings with the disease).
.
My father's daily routine is
1) measure his blood-sugar level (pricking the finger is the most accurate way to test)
2) injecting himself with the appropriate insulin amount.
However, there is a limit to how many times a day this can be done which results in stress to his system inbetween injections.
Though he is a type I diebetic, I certainly would not mind giving this treatment a shot even if his immune system would sabotage things in the end. I happen to live in Japan so it is not like I can complain about the treatment being too far from home . .
Where do I sign-up . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Since insulin is a relatively small polypeptide, wouldn't it be easier on the patient to grow the beta-cells on substrate inside microspheres with pores of about 50 nm? If you make the spheres out of non-organic material, immune cells will neither attack them or move into them.
/-o-\
ASCII art:
/ i \ i
/ \
| csc |
o csc io c = beta cells
| csc | s = substrate (serum proteins)
o csc o o = pore
\ / i = insulin
o / i
\_o_/
The insulin and glucose can traverse the pores, but immune cells can't reach the beta cells.
Just some wild speculation and it probably isn't even practical. I'm just a biochemist.
The cells are only going to last for roughly 5 years, and then the patient will have to resume taking insulin shots.
In Toronto there was a cell transplant without immune suppression.
why not?
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Taking insulin every day would be annoying, but I would choose it over immunosupressant drugs any day. My grandmother lived into her 70s while taking insulin every day.
Since diabetes runs in my family, this is more than just random musings.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"I'm not sure why we haven't seen this become a mainstream solution yet..." Because it isn't very successful. It has gotten better, but most people still require insulin after the transplant. Injecting the islet cells into the liver (through the portal vein) just doesn't give the cells the correct milieu in which to live.
First of all: the cell transplant genie has been out of the bottle for about 5 years. Last mentioned success at King Hill hospital.
This is no way new.
2.: more important: the knock out here is the anti-immune-drugs. being treated with this means: live in a sterile environment, no carpet, no plants in your room etc, having any tooth fillings removed/teeth replaced with ceramics (drilled into the jaw. yes drilled) or a denture. And so on.
Plus, a simple cold hits you like a hammer.
So you pay your so called "health" with sacrifying a much larger portion of quality of life than the diabetes had an impact on.
Because keeping people alive artificially is not playing god at all.. fucking hypocrites.
how is this news for nerds? Yes they probably used computers to do the research - but this is the type of news that goes into a health journal not /. - arguably a website for people who like to talk about technology related issues.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
What it really all comes down to is another reason why stemcell research should not only be leagal, but highly funded. The genes that cause diabetes are pretty well known at this point. It really isn't beyond our capabilities to extract some stem cells from a diabetics bone marrow fix the genes and culture the cells to grow a new pancreas that could be reimplanted in the patient with out any fear of rejection. But I suppose it won't ever happen because it's somehow immoral....
I'm coming up on my 33rd year with diabetes and if I had a dime for every time someone shouted 'CURE' I'd be rubing elbows with Bill Gates at the billionaire boys club. Like any disease that people can live with there is no funding for "CURES" or maybe it is more accurate to say there is no profit in a cure.
The thing I like most about this job is all the rocket scientists who bang their mice on their desks shouting 'It Broke!
Personally, I feel that the anti-rejection drugs are a lot more damaging than not. I'd rather stick with what works now. Insulin is cheap, and with the various types available, make it very easy to regulate and maintain blood glucose levels. Combined with a good blood glucose monitoring routine, and sensible diet/lifestyle choices, insulin can work very, very well. My last HBa1C was under 6.
As far as injections, (and I am currently doing 3 hits a day, 2 NPH, 1 NovoRapid), with the newer pen devices, and ultra fine needle tips, they are easy, and for the most part relatively painless.
I'd say that 98% of my shots I don't even really feel, and the other 2% simply serve to remind me that I'm diabetic.
I've been a diabetic for almost 25 years. I developed it when I was 12 years old. There was nothing enjoyable about it. I'll save the depressing stuff for the end. I was a lean, healthy 12 year old. My parent's didn't have to MAKE my brothers and I eat our vegetables -- we did it without complaining because we grew up having healthy meals. I was not overweight nor out of shape. I was a junior triathlete -- I swam, ran and cycled daily. It has always been considered to be either genetic (but just that they couldn't find the gene(s) responsible for it) or from someone being out of shape and overweight -- or both. The transplants have been around for a while, but the biggest drawback has always been the immunosuppressant meds -- I was always told that would make me worse when I was older. The insulin shots each day do suck. I take 2 per day, and because of being so active (a competitive distance athlete), I've woken up in the hospital days later from mild comas (and once had a spinal tap [lumbar puncture] without pain meds) because they thought it was something worse. After an ultramarathon, I didn't eat enough before going to bed, and didn't wake up on my own (I'll forever be thankful to my brother Michael for finding me -- my greatest hero, and not just because he's a selfless US Army Soldier). There are two promising MDs in the eastern US -- one at Howard Huges in the Maryland area, and one who works with the Lee Iacoca organization (who has cured type I in mice). The MD at Howard Huges has two daughters who are diabetics, so he's driven as much as Lee is to finding a cure. I believe the Pharm companies don't want a cure -- they'd loose so much money if there was a cure. Although, maybe they should be proactive and start finding a better immunosuppresant drug. Before I was diagnosed, my teachers in school wouldn't let me go to the bathroom -- they said they thought I just wanted to get out of class. They laughed when I peed myself in class one time, because it hurt too much to keep holding it in. For the 3 months prior to my diagnosis, I came home from school, went to my bedroom, closed all of the curtains, put a cool washcloth on my forehead, and laid there in the dark so my headache would not hurt as much, until dinner. I'd eat, do my homework, and go back to bed. My Mom found me curled up on the floor one evening, and called my doctor, who met me and my Mom at his office at 8 at night. The next day he told me two things: 1) that I'm a diabetic, and what it meant and 2) that I'd never be a pilot. He knew me well enough to know what at an early age I wanted to do for a living. Diabetes sucks, but it could be worse. I am hoping for a cure, but I've heard ever since I was diagnosed, that one was always just a few years away. I'm still hoping.
Unless I'm missing my developmental biology on this one, since Type I diabetics are unable to produce insulin, this will help them.
The effects for type II are questionable, as type II centers around the body's cells no longer being sensitive to insulin.
One thing to think about here is the long-term view. This progress may just give a choice between insulin maintenance and surgery plus anti-rejection drugs. However, the ultimate goal (at least until we have bionic bodies) is to restore the islet cells and normal bodily function. Restoring the cells is thus a step in that direction.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Dr. Denise Fastman has reversed diabetes in mice
She's trying to raise money for human trials, but has run into a few bumps
insulin injections were originally porcine (pig) based. This isn't entirely too far fetched. However being a diabetic and not a biologist, means that my statement means nil.
Please give your mod points to others, Im at the cap. They will appreciate it more
Yea, but one of the pills is a steroid.
I'd rather be drinking orange juice myself.
While this is good news and all, there still have not been studies for the long term use of immusupressents. Being diabetic for over 30 years I keep up with this type of information. Dr Faustman, was the first to cure diabetes in long term non-obese mice. Type 1 diabetes is an auto immune disease. What Dr. Faustman did was to stop the auto immune disease and retrain the immune system. After the treatment, the insulin cells reproduce themselves and no more medication of any kind was needed. It's a two step process. She's now trying to raise 11 million for the first phase 1 trial on humans with the help of Lee Iaccoca (of Chrysler fame). Unfortunately, her process uses drugs who's patent has expired and hence not a lot money potential on something that already costs the United States over 100 Billion. Lee Iaccoca who has already donated over 20 million on diabetes research is spearheading raising money for this by going to the people. You can find out more information and donate (I have) at http://http//www.joinleenow.org
He lived alone, got sick and was bedridden. Because of this his blood-sugar levels went haywire, and he died from diabetes. Yes, he know all about the levels of insulin etc he needed to take, but sometimes circumstance renders you unable to take it.
As for the rejection medicine... I'd assume that if you missed that then you would more likely reject the organ, and then be back to square 1. But square 1 is better than dead.
God bless Merka
My web domain.
The project has been cancelled, and the producing company has gone bankrupt. At least that is what I have heard from my doctor a couple of days ago. I didn't really expect too much out of it (I am diabetic type I myself), because of what I perceive to be (as you correctly say), a rather high uncertainty/inaccuracy. I'd rather sting myself with the Glucometer and get that little drop of blood out to get more accuracy. But if you are interested, my doc also said that the company (Cygnus) was bought up by some large corporation (I don't know which one, sorry), so research on this might continue. I wouldn't give it much of a chance for the next couple of years, though.
Axe me while I slumber
In that particular scenario i dont see what's the progress.
,could kill you anyways?
The patient is still pumped with tons of medication to prevent the anti-bodies from killing him!
For sure in a case like organ transplant when the other option is death, the choices are clear, it's preferable to take the medication and live but for diabetes, Inusline for the rest of your life? or tons of medication that if you forget some
Several -years- ago, the CBC's Quirks & Quarks
(science program) announced the successful
Edmonton Protocol (transplanting islets from
healthy volunteers to Type 1 Diabetes sufferers).
Trials were conducted around the world (incl'g
Canada, USA & Sweden, to name a few locations)
with success rates into the 80 & 90% ranges.
Of course, the problem seemed to be rejection of
the islets. necessitating the need to reduce the
immune system's effectiveness in the recipient.
So, WHAT'S NEW HERE?!?
Doesn't this article's poster or
read medical journals before embracing articles?
Fair enough to let people know about treatments
just in case peoples' doctors aren't telling them
about them (what doctors or insulin-pump makers
want to lose business?)
But is this
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Next article, please.
For years now, bone marrow has been used to help cure people with various forms of cancer. With the prospect of this new insulin producing cell transplant, could something on the order of the NMPD (National Marrow Donor Program) be on the horizon (the NMDP matches unrelated donors with patients based on genetic markers - there is little need for antirejection drugs when matches are good).
Any thoughts?
Speaking as a practicing liver, kidney, and pancreas transplant surgeon:
"Eventuelly you can live without the medication."
No, this is almost always wrong. Most people who stop taking immunosuppression lose their organs, although it is not universal. Noncompliance with medications is the leading cause of acute rejection after the first year. The University of Pittsburgh has been very interested in controlled withdrawal of immunosuppression for years. This has been accomplished more commonly in liver transplant recipients, where acute rejection is less of a problem. These trials have not been done in any randomized or controlled fashion. Most of the transplant community believes it is better to keep people on low dose immunosuppression indefinitely.
David Bruce, M.D.
Transplant Surgeon
LifeLink Healthcare Institute (www.lifelinkfound.org)
Tampa, FL
They will say they can mass produce the operation and do it far cheaper than the Japanese.
I believe it is the first living doner transplant. There have been successful cadever transplants before. Whole organ pancreas transplants havent lasted. Islet cell extractions inject into the blood or liver (like bone marrow transplants) have been more successful.
As a 25yr Type I diabetic I'm going to disagree here. Maintaining relatively "normal" blood sugar levels is anything but easy. It's very difficult for people who attempt to live normal lives, with families, jobs, children and other responsibilities.
Yes, there are points in life where you "figure it out" and for a while it stabilizes. Then your body changes, or something changes, and suddenly you're not re-acting to your meds the same way. Or your body isn't reacting the same way to the foods you normally eat. Or god forbid your boss wants you to work late on short notice and you didn't bring extra insulin.
"As for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) leading to diabetic coma, this is easily avoided by any diabetic with even "rough" control due to the fact that they will readily feel blood sugar levels dropping far in advance of danger"....
You know, I used to rail at my sister this exact same thing. Until about a year ago when suddenly my reactions to lows changed, drasticly. For 4 months I had no warning of lows, just *poof* and I was waking up to the paramedics. I had to change insulin regimin's, tons of doctor appointments, dietary changes, etc.. until I started to pick up on them again.
The truth about this disease is that it affects everyone who has it differently. It can be treated, but no one knows how effective the treatments really are. Even with near-perfect control many many diabetics still end up with very serious complications later in life. According to my doctor's, and my experience, you have a 50-50 shot of living a normal, healthy life and dieing at a ripe old age. Or losing your vision, going on dialisis and being miserable for a long long time.
Just for the record. I'm 30 years old and have had very little control of my diabetes for the first 25 years of my life. I have advanced aggressive retinopathy, kidney problems, circulation problems and a host of other crap. And my son was diagnosed with Type I a little over a year ago. My sister, on the other hand, has taken near perfect control of her diabetes. She's 4 years younger than me and was just diagnosed with retinopathy herself. The circulation in her hands and feet hasn't been good for years either.
Just remember, because it is one way for you doesn't make it that way for us. I'm glad you find it trivial to take care of your diabetes. I wish it were the same for myself and my family.
We actually know from people who have had auto islet transplants beccause of chronic pancreatitis that the islet cells CAN and DO live in the liver for quite a long period of time without failure. It seems to be the immunosuppressive medications that cause harm to the islet cells, not the liver enviornment. Auto islet transplant patients are not on immunosuppression because they have gotten their own cells transplanted back into them. Their pre and post transplant metabolic tests are equivelent. Demonstrating that the liver enviornment is probably not damaging to the islet cells.
If you'd read the article, the trials using cells from dead donors (like aborted fetuses) were unsuccessful. We need new ones. So don't fire up your abortion wagon yet.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
This is where cloning would come in handy.
The drugs used to keep the cells from being rejected are sometimes worse than Diabetes.
If the cells were cloned from DNA from the host, the body would not reject them and the drugs would not be needed.
While I love G.W. Bush, this is one of the areas where I disagree.
From what little I know about the procedure, islets are taken from a donor pancreas. Acceptable donor pancreas' are rare enough, but the extraction method is not successful every time ... there is a strict protocol that must be adhered to. Plus there are stringent indications that patient must meet. This is perhaps why this treatment is not so common. Patients who are in dire consequences due to diabetes are cured by this procedure. Amazing.
Sweet smell of your urine....not a joke. When your glucose gets to around 180, it'll show up in your urine. That's what made me go to the doctor. Now I'm Type II diabetic and have learned to maintain normal glucose levels without pills or injections. Quit smoking (going on 16 months now), lost 25 pounds, started lifting weights and running. I will have to take pills or insulin at some point but I've learned how to eat right and WHEN to eat. Just have loads of doctors visits, Eye, foot, endocrinologists, PCP etc. You do what you have to in order to keeps your limbs..........
I hate to say it, but you're right - they can't agree among themselves, and sometimes can't even agree WITH themselves.
I've been going to two different Endo centers here in town for nearly a decade now, and *between visits* they seem to change their target goals.
One time it's "You need to keep your BSL's between 80-120, eat X carbs per meal, and lose X pounds." and the next time I go in, they've changed the target BSL, say that the X carbs was "too many", and that I'm now UNDERweight. ?O.o? WTF?
(This isn't one center's opinion vs the other, mind you, this is each center's opinion changing from week to week!)
If they can't even keep themselves straight (what's the target BSL? how many carbs to eat? what BMI do you REALLY want me to be at?) then how the HELL can the REST of "John Q. Public" expect to keep ourselves on track?
Sometimes it gets to the point where the Cilexa just ain't cuttin it, and the desire to give 'em all The Finger overwhealms.
If all I have to look forward to is a lifetime of reacting to doctors who can't give me the same answer twice in a row, then I think I'll chose to eat what I want, when I want, and just take the insulin as I go.
You want to limit my carbs? *Bite me* When YOU can manage to give me a target that doesn't change every week, then I'll aim for the target.
You want me to change my body to a better BMI, but then can't agree from week to week on what BMI it should be? *Get Bent* When YOU can show up every week with a new BMI and get told that, despite following doc's orders, you're completely wrong, then maybe you'll understand.
Ok, I limit my sugar (to nearly zero), I only drink Diet soda's & water by the gallon, I've completely cut out sweets / treats / snacks / anything I used to love that even REMOTELY tasted good & replaced them all with "good for me" healthy stuff that all tastes like *crap*, and I test every four hours, round the clock...
My quality of life is a resounding *fuck you*, and you expect me to want to live this way for the rest of my life?
*MEH*
Diabetes sucks, and the Endo's are NOT helping matters any.
Indeed, this was reported in the UK some months ago. But what would you rather have, Diabetes, or be dependant on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your life?
Personally I'm not sure, but I think Insulin is easier to use, and diabetes easier to control than 'organ' rejection
If you read the actual article, they gave the patient immunosuppressants prior to transplantation but none post transplantation. Further, this patient did NOT have autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Her diabetes was a result of pancreatits. I'm still not sure why she won't reject the islets because although the cells were from her mother, it's still foreign in her body.
For me, the medication itself isn't very important. I don't really care about sticking an needle in my leg, no matter how often. But there are two big annoyances with diabetes. The first is being permanently dependant on a drug. This makes me much less useful in the third world, for instance: I can't just decide to go volunteer in Africa, without first checking if that remote village has access to insulin, and if the organisation I want to go with can arrange for provision, and if they'll accept the insurance issues, etc. Basically, I'm a less free, and less capable of helping people, and that sucks. I'm not sure any expensive medication for chronic illness would be better there. The second is and being permanently in need of medical 'tweaking'. This means that I can't just go for a walk without pre-planning of when I'll be back, how much food I'll take, etc. I'm constantly drawing graphs in my head of medication cycles vs. food cycles vs. exercise and time etc. That kind of constant requirement on a person to plan everything tends to limit fun, and freedom, and tends to wear sufferers of a chronic illness down after a while. Although anti-rejection drugs wouldn't help with the former problem, and I don't consider them a very good solution... well, they may help a little with the second, if it's a case of just regularly taking pills as opposed to calculating dosages vs. food and exercise etc.
Just lost here
You make a good point. I'm not diabetic, although I have a number of friends who are and I know it is a pain, especially as you say, if you can't go somewhere unless you are sure the drugs are available.
That said, a lot of people manage their diabetes really well, knowing the warnings signs their body gives them and medicating, and keeping sugar levels regulated with their diet.
In an ideal world there would be a device that releases insulin into your body slowly, over time, when needed.
I'm pretty sure too, there are some fairly nasty side-effects to anti-rejection medication. After all, it works by surpressing your immune system doesn't it?
Still, different things work for different people.