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Scientists find way to cure
diabetes?
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Columnists:
Sangeetha
Sridhar,
Dr.Rajan Philips,
Hasan Kamoonpuri,
Prof.C.F.Joseph
A cure for diabetes may have been found -- at
least in men.
Researchers have used slivers of testicular tissue to make millions of healthy
replacements for the faulty cells that trigger the condition.
In experiments on mice, grafts of the lab-grown pancreatic cells produced enough
insulin to control blood sugar levels in diabetic mice.
Although the work is at an early stage, US researchers believe it could lead to
a cure for men and boys with type-1 diabetes in perhaps just five years, reports
the Daily Mail .
The researchers, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington,
started with tiny samples of tissue from human testicles.
Using a cocktail of vitamins and growth factors, they transformed them first
into stem, or 'master cells, and then into the beta islet cells that produce
insulin in the pancreas. The process took around five weeks, said a Georgetown
University release.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not make enough insulin, a hormone key to
the conversion of sugar into energy, or the insulin that is made does not work
properly.
In the latest study, immature cells that would normally go on to form sperm were
turned into healthy insulin-producing cells.
Layers of pancreatic cells were then grafted onto diabetic mice, where they
produced enough insulin to control blood sugar levels for a week.
While this might not seem long, the researchers say it should be possible to
make the cells work for much longer - and for them to produce enough insulin to
benefit human diabetics.
Researcher Ian Gallicano of Georgetown University believes the testicular cells,
or spermatogonial stem cells, could succeed whether other potential diabetes
cures have failed.
Using a man's own cells as the source of the treatment would sidestep any chance
of the tissue being rejected by the body.
These findings were presented at American Society of Cell Biology's annual
conference.
- Courtesy: IANS /
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
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