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

Temporary solution?

[Eudial]

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.

Re:Temporary solution?

[wood_dude]

As sombody with Type 1, this is indeed the problem with most 'fixes' for the problem. You have to stop the transplanted cells from being destroyed again. There was somthing call 'pig sushi' that I heard about a while ago, that had pig Beta cells wrapped in an coating that stopped the immune system from getting at them. I havn't heard any more on that, but it did tackle the problem head on. Chris

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:Temporary solution?

[tomhudson]

Modern treatment for type 1 diabetics is to wear an insulin pump which constantly monitors and adjusts the insulin feed. Injecting isn't the big deal its control, getting the dosage right.

Not to be mean, but your facts are wrong. It's not a "demand pump", contrary to what you say. You have to test, and adjust it accordingly. I've seen people who use pumps who are on this crazy "test 10-20 times a day" routine to avoid reactions any time they vary their routine even a bit. No thanks. I control the disease, not the other way around.

The pump is a disaster. Sure, some people report a better quality of life - but that's because, for diabetics, life with insulin via any technique is better than life without.

I'll stick with the "see-food" technique - I see the food in front of me, I take the shot. Then I eat.

The worst part if you're trying to do the basal-bolus dosage thing is the weight gain. The reactions, chowing down on emergency calories, and associated weight gain when life interferes with your routine are very counter-productive in the long run.

Not to mention that with the pump you HAVE to eat when it's time - or else. Life isn't that neat. You can be stuck in traffic for an hour, or have to work late, or be with friends and everyone is having too much fun, or someone burnt the burgers, so supper is going to be delayed for a few hours.

While both the pump and the basal-bolus routine sound good in theory, they often suck in practice.

Better to let your blood sugar go up a couple of points temporarily, than to pass out from an insulin reaction, then have it shoot through the roof when you scarf on high-sugar-content junk.

I dropped everything but a shot of the quick-acting insulin every meal, with a follow-up if I eat (or if I'm at a party, drink) more than I expected. It's worked for more than 2 decades (except for one time when I took my shot, got distracted, forgot to eat, went to walk the dogs, and passed out), has given me a LOT more freedom than I could have on any other routine, I still have all my fingers and toes, and I'll never go back to any other routine. And comparing notes, I'm not alone.

It's not that difficult to find injection sites which are pain free.

Ouch! Speak for yourself :-) You eventually have to rotate injection sites no matter what.

-- barbie

Re:Temporary solution?

[tomhudson]

What works as a basal dose in one situation can be a massive overdose in another. Situations change, not just from day to day, but hour to hour.

What would be an acceptable dose, knowing that you're going to eat in 4 hours, doesn't work if you're delayed an additional 4 hours. Or if you suddenly have to do a lot of physical stuff for a few hours, your "safe basal dose" will put you flat out on the floor.

It's not as neat and tidy as the ads from the pump manufacturers would have you believe, if your activity level isn't the standard north american "sit on your fanny 15 hours a day". We're not lab rats living in controlled conditions, or test subjects leading a specific regimen.

I keep my sugar within the normal range at night by taking enough rapidly-acting insulin to take care of my supper and then some. And before going to be, I walk the dogs for a half hour. Sure, it will rise a bit over night, but as long as it stays within norms, I don't care, and neither should anyone else. It's within the norms - so what's the panic?

Also, some of the advice is just plain dangerous:

A pre-bolus of insulin will mitigate a spike in blood sugar that results from eating high glycemic foods. Infused insulin analogs such as NovoLog and Apidra typically begin to impact blood sugar levels 15 or 20 minutes after infusion. As a result, easily digested sugars often hit the bloodstream much faster than infused insulin intended to cover them, and the blood sugar level spikes upward as a result. If the bolus were to be infused 20 minutes before eating, then the pre-bolused insulin will be hitting the bloodstream simultaneously with the digested sugars to control the magnitude of the spike.

Stuff happens. Taking insulin 20 minutes before a meal? Want to try that heading for a meal in a busy restaurant? If the food isn't in front of you. don't take the insulin unless you want to risk a nasty reaction when the food is delayed a half hour, or there's a power failure, or you find out that the place you were all heading is too full to serve you.

The body's needs change with the temperature, exertion level, stress, etc. Your blood sugar going up a bit during a meal won't kill you (it happens naturally anyway) - stepping in front of a moving car because you're disoriented from low blood sugar can.

The pump is not a replacement for:

1. Normal body weight
2. Lots of exercise
3. Healthy lifestyle

Practice these, and you probably won't NEED a pump to stay within the normal range. Not only that, but it improves your body's sensitivity to insulin, so you need less (and as a result, are less likely to overdose if you do have to expend more energy than planned).

I remember when I started with the slow-acting insulin. I found out that I wasn't the only one who packed on the pounds - the AVERAGE weight gain was 30 pounds the first year. Every one I talked to quit, despite the team of doctors advice.

Sure enough, a decade later it was shown we were right and the doctors were wrong. The "benefits" were more than offset by the weight gains. It's not just Type 2 diabetics who gain unwanted weight when treated. The mechanism for type 1 is different - not only do higher insulin levels stimulate the appetite, but insulin reactions force you to eat junk calories, and reactions, no matter what, are a fact of life because, as I pointed out, life is messy. Better to avoid some of those reactions by not using a pump if you can.

Re:Temporary solution?

[kiwi_james]

There was somthing call 'pig sushi' that I heard about a while ago, that had pig Beta cells wrapped in an coating that stopped the immune system from getting at them.

I havn't heard any more on that, but it did tackle the problem head on.

The trials are continuing as we speak here in New Zealand. The company concerned is Living Cell Technologies

And there is an article describing it here

It's a very clever solution that solves the rejection issue. The main questions are on how much insulin can be produced and over what time period. The reality is that anything that introduces at least some reasonable level of insulin production - even if not enough to eliminate injections - should reduce the extreme blood sugar highs that cause the most long term damage to Type 1 diabetics.

It will be fantastic if this can succeed (like all of the other potential cures to this disease).

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweet news.

Of all the luck, I was just castrated last week and now I find out.

Now

[gone.fishing]

That takes balls.

And the obvious question

[MillionthMonkey]

If I grow my own insulin-producing cells at home can I sell them to diabetics in other states?

Re:And the obvious question

[JamesP]

I'm guessing it's illegal to sell your balls in Texas or something like that...

Re:And the obvious question

[circletimessquare]

since women can't do this, just invite any hot female diabetics over for a round of personalized care, including injections of... insulin

Re:And the obvious question

[dwarfsoft]

The Catholic church simply will not stand for this!

"CHILDREN:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

GIRL:
Let the heathen spill theirs
On the dusty ground.
God shall make them pay for
Every sperm that can't be found."

Etc...

Re:Type 2?

[Mprx]

In type 2 the beta cells are intact, but various other cells aren't responding to insulin normally. You can't just replace missing cells because the cells are still present.

Re:Type 2?

[Amorymeltzer]

They're different. Type 1 is a failure to produce insulin and, while a PITA, is essentially easy to deal with via insulin injections. Type 2 (aka acquired) is a failure to respond to/use insulin properly, so producing more doesn't make anything better. Mixing them up is dangerous, and medication for Type 1 or 2 can cause severe problems (e.g. death) if used by the other.

Re:Type 2?

[elsJake]

Yes it is , type 1 only.
For you I'd recommend picking up body-building , it would solve your problem.
Check out the diets and exercises on http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/ , they're meant to promote insulin sensitivity , exactly what you are missing.
I am not a doctor but still , I'm confident it would help you.

Re:Type 2?

[Culture20]

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

Re:Type 2?

[Amorymeltzer]

Actually, diabetes really refers to excess urine. What we normally call diabetes is diabetes mellitus, which means "sweet urine" (mellitus being sweet, similar to Apis mellifera, the honeybee). Diabetes insipidus refers to excess, non-sweet urine (insipidus meaning "plain, without taste" a la insipid).

That being said, once something is standardized, scientists tend not to rename things the way they should be. The best example is, of course, the flow of current, but issues with IUPAC nomenclature and the periodic table in general are rife with oddities as well. The best place for things to actually get renamed properly is probably the binomial classification of species, but even that can be severely entrenched (recent hubbub over D. melanogaster). That, and psychology and the DSM, but you know how those people are...

Some clarification...

[Guidii]

Okay, so I read TFA. As a diabetic, I had to. Hope I don't get kicked off slashdot.

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.)

Re:Some clarification...

[Antique Geekmeister]

Then I'd expect this paper to have different results:

          http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/24/5/838.full

Non-identical twins raised in the same womb and the same dietary environment would experience the same protein exposures, and as children experience similar infections or environmental factors, and have an elevated risk of sharing Type 1 diabetes if one of them has it. They don't.

From where did you hear this theory or see this claim?

Re:Great!

[severoon]

Men have always been able to create insulin-producing cells from their testicles...usually, though, they arrive with a baby wrapped around them...

Re:Next diabetic-meeting:

[c6gunner]

You jest, but I was reading the title, and had this reaction:
Diabetic Men
Hmm, I'm not diabetic, but I am a man, this could be interesting
May Be Able To Grow
?
Their Own
????
Insulin-
meh

from their testicular tissue.
ARGH!

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

Oh, the irony

[Bruce Perens]

spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) extracted from testicular tissue

And all that time, I was extracting spermatogonial cells from my testicular tissue and I didn't know how useful they could be! :-)