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."

Comments

Re:Temporary solution?

[mcrbids]

Yes, the root problem is autoimmune, but we already have a way to correct this, google "Edmunton Protocol" - the participants were effectively cured. The problem was a lack of islet cells (insulin producing cells) to do much good - it takes like 5 donor cadavers to cure 1 diabetic, so there's insufficient supply to handle even 1/100 of the diabetic patients.

But something like this just might provide cures for millions of sufferers, without fear of tissue rejection! As father of a type 1 diabetic son, this is a big, big, BIG deal!

Hooray!

Re:Type 2?

[tomhudson]

Then why are they even called the same name? You'd think someone would have thought to rename one as anti-diabetes.

Because back in the old days before they figured out exactly what the problem was, the primary medical indicator was excess levels of sugar in the urine. Which is why it in several languages is known commonly as "suger-disease".

And before they had fancy tests, they would diagnose it by the taste of the urine (sweet) and the smell of acetone or over-ripe peaches on the breath (diabetic ketoacidosis).

Cue all the jokes about "this beer tastes like warm p***".

Given that half the population doesn't even know they have diabetes, knowing the visible symptoms is useful:

1. The smell of acetone or peaches on the breath, as mentioned above
2. Excess urination (as the body tries to flush out the excess sugar through the urine)
3. Excess thirst (as the body tries to replace the water lost)
4. Lack of energy
5. Want to go to sleep after eating, as the blood sugar levels go through the roof
6. Munchies for high-calorie items (the body isn't getting it's energy via the normal metabolism of carbohydrates, so it uses an alternate, less efficient route, resulting in lots of ketones, and the acetone smell on the breath)

The good news - it's treatable, and done right, you will live as long, or longer, than your peers since you'll HAVE to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

The bad news - if you don't treat it, you'll probably die younger than you should, after losing fingers, toes, feet, etc.

More bad news - if you smoke, the combination of diabetes and smoking has probably already taken a decade off your life, and if you don't quit, your long-term prognosis still sucks. Ugly facts.

The good news - if you quit smoking before there's permanent visible damage, there's a good chance you'll get most of that back.

-- barbie