Raising Hopes Towards Cure For Diabetics Type 1? Stem cell treatment reverses d

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

May I request you to go through the latest news " A team of doctors in

Argentina has pioneered a new technique for treating diabetes using

adult stem cells that could represent a breakthrough in confronting

this chronic disease " which can be viewed through link

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

 

I think; we can't ignore these facts that :-

 

1. The experiment was on a TYPE-2 patient on 3rd January 2005.

 

2. Result shows that the pancreas began to produce insulin again, NOT

IN THE NORMAL AMOUNT, BUT AT THE LEVELS OF A TYPE-2 DIABETES PATIENT.

 

3. As per Dr. Jorge Saslavsky, the head of the Medical Team, they

doesn't know how long the benefits of the treatment will last.

 

4. THEY ALSO DOSEN'T KNOW THAT IF THE PROCEDURE WILL VE EFFECTIVE IN

TYPE-1 INSULIN DEPENDENT DIABETICS.

 

5. They have yet to publish their results in Scientific Journels as it

require a large number of test cases and more time to observe the effects.

 

6. THEY HAVE NOT CONSIDERED PATENTING THE PROCEDURE as the technique

is not novel enough to patent.

 

7. The next phase of research, being funded by a private foundation at

a cost of US$1,600 per treatment, will commence February 1.

 

8. In phase two, 35 patients between the ages of 22 and 65 will be

selected from among 500 volunteers who have already stepped up and

offered to undergo the treatment.

 

May I request you for your comments please.

 

Regards,

 

Prakashbhai Thakrar

(Shortcut URLs :

http://www.lohanaonline.com/achievers/achievers_ravi.asp

http://www.talkabouthealthnetwork.commisc.health.diabetes/messages/304170\

..html

http://in.homoeo_life/message/99

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-glibc/2004-10/msg00036.html

http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/oct2004/msg00283.html

http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/nov2004/msg00061.html

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/images/gallery/Raviraj.htm

http://www.chatabouthealth.com/ACHIEVEMENT_OF_A_DIABETIC_CHILD_WHO_TAKES_INSULIN\

_INJECTIONS_TWIC-5558537-467-a.html

Ex Corps of Military Police (Indian Army)

Member, Rajya Sainik Board Committee, Gujarat State

Vice President, Shri Rajkot Maji Sainik Co-Op. Housing Soc. Ltd.,

Rajkot

Insurance Advisor, LIC of India

General Manager, Shri Bhuvaneshwari Pith, Gondal

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

==============================================================

ARGENTINA:

Breakthrough in Treating Diabetes with Adult Stem Cells

 

Marcela Valente

 

 

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 11 (IPS) - A team of doctors in Argentina has

pioneered a new technique for treating diabetes using adult stem cells

that could represent a breakthrough in confronting this chronic disease.

 

Dr. Jorge Saslavsky, the head of the medical team, told IPS that the

experiment involved the injection of adult stem cells into a diabetic

patient, using stem cells harvested from the patient himself.

 

It was the first time that the procedure had been used to treat

diabetes, and the doctors confirmed that the patient's pancreas, which

had ceased to produce insulin, began to function again as a result of

the treatment.

 

The medical team participating in this groundbreaking experiment was

made up of cardiologists, haematologists, radiologists and other

specialists from the Sán Nicolás Clinic in the eastern Argentine

province of Buenos Aires and the Bone Marrow Transplant Centre in

Rosario, in the neighbouring province of Santa Fe.

 

The team has been using the same procedure for some time now to treat

victims of heart attacks, injecting stem cells into the damaged heart

tissue to promote recovery. Earlier this month, they used the

technique for the first time on a diabetic patient.

 

Diabetes is a chronic illness with two forms, known as Type 1 and Type

2. In Type 1 diabetes, the patient's pancreas produces very little or

no insulin, and they are dependent on artificial insulin, usually in

the form of daily injections, to maintain the proper level of blood

glucose (also known as blood sugar).

 

In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas continue to produce insulin, but the

body's tissues are unable to use it properly. In response, the

pancreas produce more insulin as a means of compensating. While

medication can often be used to treat this insulin resistance, there

are cases where the deterioration of the pancreas can lead to Type 1

diabetes and insulin dependence.

 

The patient chosen for the first clinical trial was a 42-year-old

Argentine man suffering from Type 2 diabetes who had stopped producing

insulin, said Saslavsky.

 

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.

 

In preliminary control studies, the doctors observed that the pancreas

began to produce insulin again, not in the normal amount, but at the

levels of a Type 2 diabetes patient.

 

" In this case, we did not expect the patient to be cured, but rather

to improve to the point of a diabetic who can be successfully treated

with medication, " Saslavsky explained.

 

The results of this pioneering experiment have opened up a whole new

world of possibilities for the treatment of the disease.

 

The research team does not know how long the benefits of the injection

will last, or if the procedure will be effective in Type I or

insulin-dependent diabetics. " We still haven't tried it, " noted Saslavsky.

 

However, he stressed, the procedure is an extremely simple one that

requires nothing more than the patient's consent, and has no

potentially negative side effects. " The worst that can happen is that

it doesn't have any beneficial effect, but it is completely harmless, "

he said.

 

As of now, the doctors have yet to publish their results in scientific

journals, and have not considered patenting the procedure. Publication

would require a larger number of test cases and more time to observe

the effects, and the technique is not novel enough to patent.

 

" We combined various techniques that have been used in the past for

other purposes, " Saslavsky said. At the San Nicolás Clinic alone, stem

cells have been injected into the hearts of close to 100 patients who

have suffered heart attacks.

 

Stem cells can transform themselves into any kind of cell in the human

body, including neurons or brain cells, which is why this field of

medical research offers such enormous potential.

 

There are two types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are harvested

from embryos created through in vitro fertilisation, while adult stem

cells are readily available in sources like the pancreas and brain,

although they are most easily harvested from bone marrow.

 

Stem cells do not age, and can be used to regenerate tissue and organs

even in elderly patients. " When patients are old, they have fewer stem

cells, but the quality of the cells does not change, " said Saslavsky.

 

Embryonic stem cell research has generated enormous expectations in

the medical community, he noted, but because the process used to

harvest the cells kills the embryo, it has become an extremely

controversial issue, which makes the advances achieved with adult stem

cells even more significant.

 

Nevertheless, there has been a far greater emphasis worldwide on

embryonic stem cell research as opposed to adult stem cell research,

and Saslavsky believes the reason could be economic. Because the

procedures involved in embryonic stem cell research are far more

complicated, they can attract greater funding for laboratories, while

resulting treatments would be more costly as well.

 

By contrast, the procedure for using adult stem cells from the same

patient is much simpler and thus far less expensive, as it is limited

to the cost of the catheters used to extract the bone marrow and

inject the stem cells and the reagents needed to harvest them.

 

Moreover, even if there were an easier, less costly way of cultivating

embryonic stem cells, there would still be the risk of rejection,

since they would have a different genetic composition than that of the

recipient.

 

In the past, there have been cases of diabetics receiving treatment in

the form of grafts of pancreatic tissue from recently deceased donors,

but the technique is risky precisely because of the potential for

rejection, Saslavsky noted.

 

" What is completely novel about this technique is that the stem cells

come from the patients themselves, which means there is no danger of

rejection and resulting damage to the pancreas, " he said.

 

The progress observed in the subject of this groundbreaking

experiment, who remains anonymous, could provide a key to combating

diabetes, which is a leading cause of death in many countries. (END/2005)

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/health/view/128595/1/.html

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Health News »

 

A vaccine injection

 

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 22 January 2005 1039 hrs

 

Stem cell treatment reverses diabetes: researchers

 

BUENOS AIRES : Millions of diabetics worldwide could put insulin

injections behind them if a stem cell treatment that Argentine

physicians have successfully used to reverse the disease confirms

promising early results.

 

The treatment, in which stem cells are injected into the pancreas,

does not involve risks of rejection, requires no prolonged inpatient

treatment, and any physician trained in and skilled with

catheterization could perform it, cardiologist Roberto Fernandez Vina

told AFP.

 

Fernandez Vina leads the team that successfully carried out the first

implant of its kind January 3 on an insulin-dependent diabetic patient

at San Nicolas Hospital in the town of San Nicolas, north of Buenos

Aires.

 

The 42-year-old man, who had been insulin dependent since the age of

25, so far has seen his glucose levels return to normal with no need

for medication.

 

The treatment involves extracting stem cells from the ilium, a bone in

the hip, and after manipulating them in the laboratory, injecting them

into the pancreas using a special catheter introduced through the

femoral artery, which provides a direct route to the " tail " of the

pancreas.

 

" It is an unprecedented technique, because it uses stem cells and not

embryonic ones, as had been done previously, and because of the path

of injection, since we chose a direct artery and not a peripheral

vein, " Fernandez Vina said.

 

Unlike embryonic cells, stem cells have the ability to act as

" copiers " of the information they find in the organ into which they

are deposited.

 

People with diabetes have a shortage in the pancreas of so-called beta

cells, which have the task of producing insulin, with which the body

regulates glucose levels in the blood.

 

Introducing " copy-making " cells in the pancreas generates beta cell

production, thereby increasing the production of insulin needed to

balance the patient's glucose level.

 

Fernandez Vina noted that advantages of stem cell therapy in the

pancreas are that it can be repeated in the same patient and that the

catheterisation technique does not require particularly extensive

training.

 

The method " opens up an enormous area of research " into other

diseases, such as Hepatitis C, Fernandez Vina added.

 

" In any case, we have to be prudent and act cautiously, " the

specialist said, noting that " every patient is different " and the

pancreas may have varying responses to this treatment.

 

The next phase of research, being funded by a private foundation at a

cost of US$1,600 per treatment, will commence February 1.

 

In phase two, 35 patients between the ages of 22 and 65 will be

selected from among 500 volunteers who have already stepped up and

offered to undergo the treatment.

 

" We are going to include diabetics whose beta cells no longer produce

insulin (who are insulin-dependent), as well as those who need

medication to boost their production " of beta cells, the researcher

explained.

 

" We want it to be a treatment that delivers results fast, " added

Fernandez Vina, at the helm of a group of researchers at the public

Universidad Nacional de Rosario.

 

He is also an immunologist with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in

Houston, Texas.

 

The team's research in this case actually began in Argentina in 2003

with testing of the use of stem cells in the heart to repair heart

attack-damaged tissue.

 

The US-based Cardiovascular Research Foundation has voiced interest in

the research protocol, the Argentine research team leader added. - AFP