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Diabetic Men May Be Able To Grow Their Own Insulin-Producing Cells
An anonymous reader writes "Men with type 1 diabetes may be able to grow their own insulin-producing cells from their testicular tissue, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers who presented their findings today at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia. Their laboratory and animal study is a proof of principle that human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) extracted from testicular tissue can morph into insulin-secreting beta islet cells normally found in the pancreas. And the researchers say they accomplished this feat without use of any of the extra genes now employed in most labs to turn adult stem cells into a tissue of choice."
Sweet news.
They took our balls!
Since one of the thoughts(at least what they told me was the cause 15 years ago) for the Type 1 Diabetes it is an autoimmune disease, how long is it until the immune system will just attack the new insulin producing cells?
The article mentions "immune deficient diabetic mice," so the autoimmune question remains.
From what I understand (and this may very well be wrong), Type 1 diabetes is when the immune system breaks down beta islets leaving one unable to produce insulin. So wouldn't this be a highly temporary fix, before the immune system goes to town again?
If so, I don't know if a lifetime of being stabbed in the balls is preferable to a lifetime of insulin injections.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I suffer from type 2 diabetes. I wonder why this is only applicable for type 1.
Great advance; however, the problem isthat it still requires the recipient to be immune deficient i.e. the testes with beta cell islet cell characteristics were transplanted into the back of immune deficient mice
That takes balls.
If I grow my own insulin-producing cells at home can I sell them to diabetics in other states?
of the testicles!?
I'm more interested in helping women who need insulin injections. I'm a humanitarian that way.
Some key points: They took spermatogonial stem cells (SSC's) from testicular tissue of deceased organ donors (not from diabetic patients) and observed that some of these cells would turn into insulin producing beta cells in a test tube. They injected these cells into mice, and found that the mice had reduced glucose levels for a week.
This is pretty exciting news, since the alternative source of beta cells is to extract them from the pancreas of deceased organ donors. (This was done in the Edmonton Protocol.)
Take that, ladies!
(Because you won't take anything else from me...)
was the sound of ten thousand geeks crossing their legs in unison.
"You're not the administrator of me. You can't tell ME how to mod!" :P
Nevermind the bollocks.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
I misread it as: Diabolic Men May Be Able To Grow Their Own Insulin-Producing Cells
Wrong. One of the common medication for Type 2 is sulfonyureas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfonylurea
They act my making the pancreas produce more insulin.
Could give a whole new meaning to go fuck yourself
But only completely for type 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46_GInjBeQU
See also: http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/diabetes.aspx
Type 1 diabetics still need to take insulin, but can take less and have less complications. So, this idea from the article might eventually help them.
From that link: "John ... was a 22 year old college graduate with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 6. He was five foot, eight inches tall and weighed 190 pounds. He was taking a total of 70 units of insulin daily. He was referred to my office by his family physician as he was having swings in his glucose levels, too high at times and at other times dangerously low. He also wanted to learn more about nutrition to improve his health and reduce his future risks from having diabetes. I was impressed by his intelligence and desire to change his eating habits to better his health. We spent lots of time discussing the typical problems that befall most diabetics, and I explained to him that using 70 units of insulin a day was part of the problem. I explained that if he follows my recommended diet-style he will stabilize his weight at about 145 pounds and he will only require about 30 units of insulin a day. With this lower level of insulin, to mimic the amount of insulin a non-diabetic makes in the pancreas, he can have a life without the typical health issues that befall diabetics. We cut his nighttime insulin dose down by ten units and his mealtime insulin from 10 to 6 as he began the diet. Over the next two weeks we gradually tapered his insulin and found that he only needed 20 units of Lantus insulin at bedtime and 4 units before each meal for a total of 32 units a day. Almost immediately, with my dietary recommendations, his sugars were running in the favorable range, and he no longer experienced dangerous drops in his blood sugar. He had lost 13 pounds over the first month and by month three weighed 167, a loss of 23 pounds. He was excited about what he had learned and was more hopeful about his life while living with his diabetes. I am convinced, that with the Eat To Live or Eat For Health diet-style, those with Type 1 diabetes can have a long and disease-free life. I feel it is imperative that all Type 1 diabetics learn about this life, saving approach."
Key there for type 1 diabetics is reducing complications, even if they still take diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes may also be related to vitamin D deficiency in utero and early life.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18846317
http://www.google.com/custom?q=diabetes&sitesearch=vitamindcouncil.org
If you have type 2 diabetes, you can most likely, within weeks under Dr. Fuhrman's plan, be throwing your insulin away forever (at least, based on what he writes). I know you may find this hard to believe. The key idea there is to lose weight to reduce insulin resistance, and to eliminate refined carbs to reduce insulin needs, and to improve your body's general health with more phytonutrients, and so bring the need for insulin within the remaining capacity of your body. In most cases of type 2 diabetes this should be enough to eliminate the need for any medications. Even if you remained on medications, the risk of complications would go way down and the quality of your life would go way up.
See also Raw For Thirty (though Dr. Fuhrman's approach is more comprehensive and not all raw for some good reasons):
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
Some people think they have type 1 diabetes because they have been misdiagnosed and are really type 2 and presumably 100% curable. I guess the opposite may be true, too, sadly. In any case, you never know for sure till you try.
I am following the Eat to Live plan for other reasons (though not
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
And all that time, I was extracting spermatogonial cells from my testicular tissue and I didn't know how useful they could be! :-)
Bruce Perens.
We just need genetically modified cows that produce human milk.
I'm from Invercargill, New Zealand. Right now, I'm about ... 20KM or so from the "Living Cell Technologies facility", or so we can suppose, the location is "top secret".
Its a very interesting topic, I am Vegan, I see it as absolutely *horrid* that we would even think of harming other animals, we would not do this to Human animals...or would we?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_syphilis_experiment
What do you think happens in Gitmo, and Area 51?
As a local of the area, I can speak more in detail of what goes on, of the coverage at a local, and national level. Its basically treated as the second coming of jesus, that his will be a miracle cure, and *MOST IMPORTANTLY*, that our Mayor claims all the credit, for all the money that this WILL (because its going to succeed dammit) bring to the area.
For more on their story, of being left on a bunch of rocks just before Antartica for Whalers to kill, of being designated "an introduced species", who MUST be killed by our Department of "Conservation", apart from a few kept alive as a novelty, please visit my blog post. I include an Australian news video which shows a tour of the awful facility. To my knowledge, this sort of coverage has never occurred in my area, where this is happening, perhaps for fear of public backlash. I also include a letter I wrote to my local newspaper, which was answered by LCT:
http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-of-pig-transplant-facility-in.html
To what end will we abuse others? Its as easy to be Vegan as not, and its the least other animals deserve.
To learn more about Veganism, please visit http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/ or try one these podcasts http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/07/vegan-info.html
Jordan Wyatt
Invercargill Vegan Society
---
If this technology were readily available and one were to get in trouble with a significant female other?
"Honey! Let's talk about this! You can burn the baseball cards, but please, not my testicular insulin cultures!!!"
She'd literally have one, "by the balls" *rimshot*
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Proof that testosterone does play a part in the way you metabolize your food, either through protein break down process or other means, but it is easily linked to your diet, and why you could have a bodybuilder using insulin to help the growth of his muscles, and not become diabetic, go figure...who knew they already knew all of this !