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View Full Version : Approach "cures" Type 2 in mice

seacomp
09-12-2006, 04:16 PM
With intraspecies transplant.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/wuso-tcr091206.php
BlueSky
09-12-2006, 04:26 PM
"organogenesis" is a new one on me. I guess it means creating new organs. Where will it all end! Anuway, the fact that anti-rejection drugs are not required is very appealing. That this approach also seems to reverse insulin sensitivity is indeed intriguing.
Cyborg
09-12-2006, 04:48 PM
I guess I'm confused by how implanting pancreas cells helps to cure the insulin resistence exhibited by type 2 diabetics. By stating that "the pancreas becomes irreparably damaged in an effort to keep up with the resulting increase in insulin demand", isn't that a broad statement. I did not think this happened to all type 2 diabetics, or even a significant portion...
MedsManSteve
09-12-2006, 04:51 PM
Trading one disease for another makes for a very tough decision. If researchers can get to the point of making the primordia resistant/invisible to the human immune system this would be a major breakthrough.

Cell surface molecules which are polymorphic would seem to enable the immune system to recognize both itself and also foreign antigens without marking pig primordia cells as foreign.

I'm looking forward to the future online research data, please post later if available. Thanks, great link!
BlueSky
09-12-2006, 05:01 PM
I... "the pancreas becomes irreparably damaged in an effort to keep up with the resulting increase in insulin demand", isn't that a broad statement. I did not think this happened to all type 2 diabetics, or even a significant portion...
This would be what eventually forces T2 diabetics to inject insulin. Their beta cells become overworked and die off. The article states :In the new study, they transplanted the pig primordia into a strain of rat with a disorder that closely resembles human type 2 diabetes. The result was the same: the transplants cured the rats' diabetes without any immune suppression.
Which suggests that insulin receptors that were denying access to the rats endogenous insulin were recptive to the newly produced pig insulin. Which begs the question, I wonder how they got the rats to be insulin resistant?