Breakthrough in Treating Diabetes with Adult Stem Cells

[Gato Moteado]

this is huge news folks:

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26996

the corrupt bush admin and the braindead repuke voters should get steamrolled over by the general public as more of these unbelievable stories emerge from other countries.

[eleonora]

1. wow, huge indeed! n/t

[hiley]

2. OMG !

This is very encouraging to me, selfishly because I have diabetes.
Thanks so much for this information.

[Gato Moteado]

4. i'm confident we're going to see effective treatments....

...and cures for diabetes from stemcell research in the very very near future.

if we had real elections in this country, we would be getting rid of the scum in office this month and starting a kerry administration that would no doubt get america back on track leading the world in these types of technologies. instead, we have to rely on other countries to come up with these cures until the sleeping giant in this country wakes up starts making some noise.

[hiley]

7. Thanks for the encouraging

words of hope !

As far as the elections, you are so correct. We have to keep fighting
for fair elections. The fraud and media have to be stopped. I love D U
because of the fight of the people and the courage shown here.

[Wolfetone]

36. This has nothing to do with the Bush's science policies

There is no ban on adult stem cell research in America. The Bush administrations restrictions on embryonic stem cell research do not affect adult stem cell researc.

[Gato Moteado]

40. just think where we'd be already if 4 years ago.....

the anti-science, fake-christian-pandering chimp didn't put the kibosh on embryonic stemcell research in this country. there's a stigma attached to stemcell research in general because of this corrupt administration.

so, yes....i think we can blame the fact that we are behind the curve on chimpco.

[sellitman]

3. Wow!

Progress despite the best efforts of the Repukes! How wonderful! Thanks for the news.

[cosmicaug]

5. How so?

Gato Moteado wrote:

this is huge news folks:

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26996

the corrupt bush admin and the braindead repuke voters should get steamrolled over by the general public as more of these unbelievable stories emerge from other countries.

How so?

How do you pin this sort of thing on the Bush administration? I can think of one way to link this sort of thing (your implied domestic decline in science) to Bush administration policy (brain drain for a variety of reasons, general educational decline for a variety of reasons) but the effects would be seen years down the road and not now to any significant degree.

[shraby]

8. Because the Bush administration

has in effect banned stem cell research. They limited it to the existing lines which were very few in number and the ones that were left were not in very good shape.

This may be a few years down the road, but those are years we aren't using productively toward finding cures for anything with stem cells. Harvard set up their own department for stem cell research, one that doesn't depend on federal money to run in order to do the science.

It IS huge news. Particularly if you or one of your family has diabetes. Any break-through is a wonderful thing.

[cosmicaug]

15. Embryonic stem cells.

shraby wrote:

Because the Bush administration has in effect banned stem cell research. They limited it to the existing lines which were very few in number and the ones that were left were not in very good shape.

This may be a few years down the road, but those are years we aren't using productively toward finding cures for anything with stem cells. Harvard set up their own department for stem cell research, one that doesn't depend on federal money to run in order to do the science.

It IS huge news. Particularly if you or one of your family has diabetes. Any break-through is a wonderful thing.

Oh, you think the original poster's problem is with that ban? I find the embryonic stem cell ban problematic too but that has nothing to do with this.

As the article clearly states and as mzmolly has also pointed out, this is not embryonic stem cell work we are dealing with (it appears to be work on bone marrow stem cells --and yes, it is a surprise, at least to me, that these cells should be so versatile as to expand beyond their normal role as progenitors of various blood cells). Unless you can show that it has happened outside the U.S. because these are U.S. researchers that have fled a science hostile environment (which will happen) or because we are just not producing as many scientists as we used to (which a failing educational system will cause) or because we are not attracting or keeping foreign researchers (which I'm certain is happening --if nothing else from visa problems) or because the scientists are being shifted from the appropriate productive field (which, since we are not talking about research on embryonic stem cells, has not happened), you can't blame this on the current administration.

At least not yet. If current trends persist, no doubt you will be able to do so justifiably a few years down the road but not now.

[sherilocks]

26. Embryonic stem cells are less likely to be rejected

In this particular case the stem cells belonged to the patient, but it certainly proves the enormous value of stem cells in treating various diseases. Right now, for instance, a leukemia patient over a certain age cannot receive a bone marrow transplant because the drugs used to prevent rejection will ultimately kill them. Below are some articles that can better explain this than I can.

<snip>

At the moment no-one is quite sure just how the cells in an embryo are switched on or off to form particular types of tissue - kidney rather than liver, or liver rather than heart. As the answers to these questions are found , the potential will be there for a limitless supply of new organs. Not only that, but the problem of rejection could be solved. The immune system does not attack and destroy a developing embryo even though it has different antigens on its cells to the mother. Perhaps new cells or organs created from embryo stem cells will enjoy this same protection.

<snip>

http://www.timelinescience.org/resource/students/tplant/stemcell.htm

<snip>

Embryonic stem cells are the originating cells from which all tissues in the body develop during the earliest days of pregnancy. Medical researchers hope to turn them into rejection-free transplant tissues to treat diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

<snip>

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/issues/2004-10-26-stem-cell-research_x.htm

I tend to get a little overwrought over all the misinformation about embryonic stem cells because I was a donor for an experimental leukemia treatment for my sister who was 60 at the time. Watching her recovery from the leukemia, only to see her suffer from the anti-rejection drugs was unbearable. I'm talking blindness, inability to walk, and ultimately breast cancer. My sister survived the immediate death sentence she had received from her leukemia, but she ultimately died from the anti-rejection drugs. Her life was prolonged for a few precious years and her grand-daughter at least will be able to remember her. Everytime I think about my sister's suffering and I think about * denying people like her the possibility of a cure, I just want to scream.

[cosmicaug]

45. Bone marrow registry.

sherilocks wrote:

In this particular case the stem cells belonged to the patient, but it certainly proves the enormous value of stem cells in treating various diseases. Right now, for instance, a leukemia patient over a certain age cannot receive a bone marrow transplant because the drugs used to prevent rejection will ultimately kill them. Below are some articles that can better explain this than I can.

You are correct. Of course, if this treatment pans out, the idea would undoubtedly be to always use the patient's own stem cells so rejection would remain a non-issue (except for the issue of autoimmunity --and there's no strong reason to think, at the moment, that embryonically derived stem cells would be less susceptible to this).

sherilocks wrote:

I tend to get a little overwrought over all the misinformation about embryonic stem cells because I was a donor for an experimental leukemia treatment for my sister who was 60 at the time. Watching her recovery from the leukemia, only to see her suffer from the anti-rejection drugs was unbearable. I'm talking blindness, inability to walk, and ultimately breast cancer. My sister survived the immediate death sentence she had received from her leukemia, but she ultimately died from the anti-rejection drugs. Her life was prolonged for a few precious years and her grand-daughter at least will be able to remember her. Everytime I think about my sister's suffering and I think about * denying people like her the possibility of a cure, I just want to scream.

I'll take that comment as an opportunity to mention the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) Registry so that others may consider signing up for it.

[hiley]

10. For one thing the Bush

administrations' complete distain for anything scientific is causing problems every where ! If he did not "go moral" on the stem cell issue in the first place Americans probably would have already found this little tidbit Already. Do you know anyone who has died from the effects of diabetes, do you know anyone who lives with it ?
Come on it is significant ..

[genieroze]

14. My mother died at 32 from going into a diabetic coma, my father got

it later on in life and both of my grandfathers had it.

[hiley]

34. I am so sorry

that diabetes has been in your life too. Sorry your Mother died so young, it is tragic. It is all through my family as well and I do understand some of your pain and loss. Going into a coma is such a scary thought to me.:hug:

[KansDem]

43. You have my sympathy...

Fifty years ago last November my dad died from diabetes. He too died from a moment when the medicines and circumstances just didn't work. Now I have diabetes, diagnosed in August of 2004.

I wonder where we would be today if the Bushistas hadn't rejected science in favor of myth. In addition to the constant prescriptions I must have and the expense that comes with them (because His Royal Flatulence refuses to allow less expensive drugs into the US), I now must face an "iffy" future just so the Chimp can appear to be "Xtian."

The debate over stem-cell research is counterproductive; let the scientists and researchers decide if stem-cells are viable, not some religious fanatic!

[cosmicaug]

18. I'm talking about problems now.

hiley wrote:

For one thing the Bush administrations' complete distain for anything scientific is causing problems every where !

Truly I consider this administration to be an anti-science administration. That doesn't mean I can justifiably blame it for this advance occurring first in Argentina and not here (maybe competent scientists are just not the exclusive domain of the U.S.A. --have you ever considered that?).

hiley wrote:

If he did not "go moral" on the stem cell issue in the first place Americans probably would have already found this little tidbit Already.

I very much doubt it. In any event, even if the administration's policies were delaying the development of an embryonic stem cell equivalent breakthrough, it could not produce a delay, at the present time, of more than 4 years. In this fantasy scenario, you'd still have this adult stem cell breakthrough occurring in Argentina and it would eclipse the hypothetical embryonic stem cell breakthrough in the U.S.A. (which we really have no strong reason to believe would have happened). Basically, an embryonic stem cell breakthrough in regenerating islets of Langerhans' insulin producing activity would be for nothing because the logistics and safety of treatment by one's own adult stem cells will probably be considered to beat the options coming from some foreign embryonic line in the foreseable future.

hiley wrote:

Do you know anyone who has died from the effects of diabetes, do you know anyone who lives with it ?
Come on it is significant ..

Sure, great breakthrough. Where it happened, however, had nothing to do with Bush. Rumor has it also, that he might not have caused the recent tsunami either. Some evil things are not caused by Bush, believe it or not (a disproportionate amount of evil things might be caused by the Bush administration, but not all).

[punpirate]

11. Bush's order on stem cell research...

... is now over two years old. From the instant he announced his policy, stem cell researchers started to migrate to jobs outside the country, particularly to the UK, where such restrictions on research did not exist.

These potential treatments are showing up more rapidly in large part because of the maturity of genetic research. I have no doubt that research in other countries, already in progress, was aided by American researchers who were effectively stalled in their work in this country by Bush's decision.

That's at least one way this can be pinned on Bush.

Cheers.

[Igel]

41. Be clear: there are numerous types of stem cells.

Bush's ban was on funding embryonic stem cell research using stem cell lines created after a certain date.

Bush's administration's been funding embryonic stem cell research on the few pre-existing stem cell lines.

Stem cell research, embryonic and otherwise, has gone on for decades. Much non-embryonic stem cell work is relatively new, it's only been in the last decade or two that they've known how widespread they were. But much of the embryonic stem cell research keeps running into severe problems. I haven't heard of one clinical trial that involves embryonic stem cells, or one cure (outside, I think, of a Chinese doctor who didn't use controls, but who used fetal stem cells: but this wasn't a trial.)

The admin's also been funding stem cell research on all the other kinds of stem cells: those from umbilical cords, bone marrow, fat, dental pulp, etc., etc.

But the MSM doesn't make a distinction. It's decided all stem cell research must be embryonic, so it's understandable why people say counterfactual things.

[punpirate]

47. Yes, I understand...

... that stem cell difference, and I agree that the media has played the embryonic stem cell up in comparison to all other stem cell research--that, however, has been fueled in part by embryonic stem cell researchers themselves.

What I am mostly speaking to is a well-known truism in research--that researchers follow the money and the opportunity to do their chosen work. Researchers, finding themselves limited here in what they can do will go and have gone elsewhere.

There have been problems associated with embryonic stem cells--you're quite correct in that regard. But, knowledge is incremental. Once management of those cells is improved, with Bush's order, there will be no way to replenish damaged or contaminated stocks, effectively suspending that research. From what I've read, sixteen of the lines now existing and approved by Bush are unusable, either because they have been contaminated by other cells or have shown genetic changes.

Ultimately, the latter may be an indication that embryonic stem cells may be a scientific dead end, but without the ability to prove that, the research will remain in suspended animation. That's just the opinion of someone who is neither a geneticist or a microbiologist, but rather as one who understands that science marches on--if not here, then in the UK, or Germany, or South Korea, or someplace else.

Cheers.

[mzmolly]

6. Wow, very encouraging.

Interesting to note these were the patients own stem cells.

[bpilgrim]

9. what... are you some kind of SCIENCE FREAK?

jesus hater or sometin? tryin impure our bodily fluids :shrug:

you're probably on the fast-track to gitmo talk'n like that :scared:

shun it... shun it

:evilgrin:

peace

[KTM]

12. Good news, but lets keep perspective

These are ADULT stem cells, not the controversial fetal stem cells that BushCo argue against. This can (and will) be used to argue effectivly against fetal stem cell research.

[Gato Moteado]

13. this shows how real stemcell treatments and cures are.....

....and if adult stem cells have limitations and new lines of embryonic stemcells will be needed to go farther, then i'm confident that the medical community will be able to beat the braindead repukes with facts.

we're only scratching the surface now. when they start showing signs that diabetes, parkinson's, alzheimer's, etc can be treated, controlled or cured using stemcells, bush is going to be forced by members of his own party in congress to reverse his ridiculous executive order against funding embryonic stemcell research. when the cures are within reach, even idiot repuke senators and congressmen will have to jump on board....who the hell will vote for them if they try to stifle people trying to cure suffering victims?

[cosmicaug]

21. RBC.

Gato Moteado wrote:

this shows how real stemcell treatments and cures are.... .....and if adult stem cells have limitations and new lines of embryonic stemcells will be needed to go farther, then i'm confident that the medical community will be able to beat the braindead repukes with facts.

If you believe that.... If you believe that, sir, you must be a member of the reality based community. You know, those folk who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.". That's not the way the world works any more. Did you not get the memo?

[cosmicaug]

19. Bingo!

KTM wrote:

These are ADULT stem cells, not the controversial fetal stem cells that BushCo argue against. This can (and will) be used to argue effectivly against fetal stem cell research.

Bingo! KTM wins the prize!

Indeed. You may not like this, and I may not like this; but this is exactly how it is going to be argued (and not completely without merit --though I still think that the justification is wrong). They will say "See? No fetuses were harmed in the production of this breakthrough and that means that our policies were the correct ones." Again, I don't agree with this but that is what they are going to say.

OTOH, I'm happy with this because otherwise the best experimental cure so far might have been cadaver transplantation of islet cells and that would probably (barring further breakthroughs which are sure to happen but have not happened yet at this point in time) require a lifelong regimen of anti-rejection drugs.

On edit: fixed small typo.

[daleo]

20. It is true about the distinction between adult and embryonic stem cells

But, I have to think that a researcher who has one avenue blocked off (or severely restricted) is going to choose a jurisdiction that doesn't restrict his or her lines of investigation, all things being equal. So, I think it can be reasonably argued that the ban on embryonic stem cell use does inhibit research.

For one thing, it precludes the possibility of using both adult and embryonic cells for various procedures and determining which works the best. A U.S. researcher would know that any discovery that they make with adult stem cells might easily be picked up and "trumped" by researchers in another country using embryonic cells. While that would be encouraging in a scientific sense, it would be discouraging for the researcher, knowing that they will have to share credit for their discovery.

And one would expect that corporations would set up their stem cell related research in countries that don't have the ban, all things being equal. That way they don't have to duplicate promising research that worked with adult stem cells with embryonic cells somewhere else. Both procedures can be tested in the same (non U.S.) lab.

[Malva Zebrina]

37. yes, and the use of embryonic stem cells is less traumatic

This person had to have his bone marrow extruded and he was under anethesia for ten min utes. That is a risk. If the embryonic cells were used, this step would be eliminated.

and those who would object to this would rather put a two year old child under anesthesia, a child, btw, who is already compromised with Diabetes and whose risk is high, than see stem cells taken from those donated at a fertililty clinics.

[Occulus]

42. true, but then, read this part

"The doctors began by extracting bone marrow in a procedure that required 10 minutes of general anaesthesia. The stem cells were harvested from the marrow and injected through a catheter into the pancreas, with no need for surgery.

The entire procedure was carried out in a single day. The bone marrow was extracted in the morning, and the stem cells were injected during a two-hour process later in the day. "That evening, the patient walked out of the hospital," Saslavsky said."

It's a one-day, outpatient procedure. It sound like it wouldn't even be too expensive a treatment to administer.

The potential benefits far outweight the risks on this one. Further, intensive research is required, but wouldn't it be nice if this achievement put us firmly on the road to a cure for diabetes?

My grandmother died while in a diabetic coma. She would smile wide over this news...

[Malva Zebrina]

44. Yes, I agree

but the patient is a person, not the embryo, and if a procedure can afford the least risk to a patient, that is the road that should be travelled. "Do no harm"

I am not against embryonic stem cell research, as you can gather and in this case, it seems to me that the person who is ill, needs to have the least risk involved in his care.

A diabetic is risky--suppose he or she should begin to vomit due to the anesthesia? That would put their blood sugar control haywire, needing more intervention.

I am for all the benefits all the way round to the suffering human being and in my view, those embryos that are used for stem cell research are not suffering human beings--the human being needing this is.

[NuttyFluffers]

16. wow that's huge.

i have several friends and relatives who are either type 1 or type 2 diabetic. this is remarkable. hopefully this treatment will get approval somewhere after extensive study. i doubt very much it'll get approval here, though...

[Catherine Vincent]

17. That breakthrough would do well with a lot of Americans

that have diabetes. Wake the f up Bush!

[DemBones DemBones]

23. Why doubt it will get approval here? Adult stem cells were used,

not embryonic ones.


People who "object to stem cell research" object to the use of embryos in stem cell research, and support using adult stem cells for research.

[NuttyFluffers]

24. everything is politics my dear.

and our president doesn't like to 'negotiate with himself.'

you have more faith in this administration's sensibility than i do. but perhaps i'm just deeply cynical -- from overwhelming evidence of their actions.

[mccoyn]

29. We don't need "faith in this administration" here.

This administration has banned the use of embryonic stem cells while allowing adult stem cells. We already know their direction from their actions. No need for faith.

This article is barely related to the US political issue. Its just some good news.

[Gato Moteado]

30. well, i feel it is related.....

even though chimpy didn't "ban" adult stemcell research, his ridiculous anti-science actions and words (meant to pander to religious fanatics and fake christians) put a stigma on stemcell research in general.

we should be engaging in stemcell research from all angles with all the resources we have. this is amazing technology and the quicker we get into it, the quicker we can stop suffering.

[hiley]

35. Bushie and his

taliban are trying to bring "Jesus" back now so why would they care if stem cell of any kind could help people.
Putting aside the fact of his love of the Drug Companies and forgetting the FDA's bullshit in coherts with bush co.
The religious fanatics want all "non-beleivers" of their version to suffer anyhow. You know "Revalations"
and all.
I am going to take your link and start a campaign to get Senators to listen. I will beat them in the head with it just like everything esle.

[hiley]

32. Quess you did not get the

"memo" the administration clearly objects to anything that makes sense or might actually help people.
The Legal Drug Industry can't make a steady flow of money off someone who doesn't need their medications for diabetes and all that follows from it, heart disease and so on.

[Gato Moteado]

33. bingo!

pfizer and the rest own the chimp admin.

[burn the bush]

22. my grandson is 3 and has been diabetic for 2yrs now. Daily shots

it breaks my heart to have to give him shots. He has to have 1-6 shots a day. Little guy has seizures too. This is so promising. It would be so cool if he were not going to have to have shots all of his life.

[caligirl]

48. Look into the pump, my 16 year old has had better control with the

pump. Growing kids( growth hormone stress hormones and NPH veriability swings) and shots is a roller coaster I don't want to revisit.

But from one parent to another who knows the hardship, I know what your life is like. Our doctors at Stanford are working on the closed loop system and other continuous monitoring devices that will help. My son who has been a diabetic for almost three years now has been participating in a little of the research.

[SoCalDem]

25. Wonderful and sad at the same time..

Notice that the research was done in Argentina, and it was reported in an African paper.,.

Even when people in the US are pounding down the doors, our lazy and lackluster government will probably choose to disbelieve the research and demand huge sums of money to "study" it further..

Instead of BEING the ones on the cutting edge, we have been relegated to being the ones with noses pressed to the windows...on the outside looking in.:(

My husband is diabetic, and I would love for him to have this opportunity too.. Maybe a vacation to Argentina is in order.. It's very pretty there :)

[Quakerfriend]

27. Help! Link is broken!

[0007]

28. Worked Okay for me.

[patcox2]

31. And Big Pharma would allow a treatment that doesn't use drugs?

First of all, I will take serious notice when a real test is written up in a peer-reviewed journal. What we have here is an anecdote reported in a newspaper. Are they using the heart disease treatment here in the US yet? If not, why? There are many quack procedures which are performed in South American hospitals, and many americans desperate for some hope go there for them, but usually there is a reason they are not used here, such, for example, the fact that they don't work.

On the other hand, and demonstrating that my cynicism runs both ways, the big pharmaceutical companies sure won't like any cure that eliminates the need for a life-long daily prescription, will they? Wonder how hard they'd fight this.

On edit, a google search reveals that the heart disease stem cell treatment is the subject of an ongoing FDA approved clinical double blind study. A prior, non-blind study conducted in the US and published in a real journal, demonstrated significant improvement in heart function.

So, much of my scepticism is relieved.

I wonder if fetal stem cells would work better than the adult cells being used in these treatments? I wonder if we will ever know.

[Dulcinea]

39. As Chris Rock once said....

"...Ain't no money in the cure. The money is in the treatment."

That said, this is great news. There's lots of diabetes in my family, including my sister, diagnosed last spring w/ type 1.

[cosmicaug]

46. Thank you for your edit.

Here's a Journal citation (I have no idea if this is considered a reputable journal but I certainly would not assume otherwise). Just because it's only mentioned on a newspaper article and newspaper articles don't tend to include references of the scientific literature, it doesn't mean that every scientific article mentioned on a newspaper is bogus. Just because the possible breakthrough occurred outside the U.S. does not mean that it is as illegitimate as 99.99% of the treatments offered by Mexican border clinic scam artists. Thank you for editing your post to acknowledge this.

[Gothmog]

38. Great News

This is very good news.