Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: New research points to using a person’s OWN stem cells to “switch on” genes that could turn it into an insulin-pancreas cell!
The article starts, “Scientists undertook a study centered around a 59-year-old male patient with a 25-year history of type 2 diabetes. Following a kidney transplant in 2017, the patient experienced a decline in pancreatic islet function, necessitating daily multi-dose insulin injections.”
To translate this into English and also give you a framework for this entry:
A guy with Type 2 diabetes who had to get a kidney transplant because his own kidneys stopped working. (You might or might NOT know is that, according to Wikipedia, “Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, stroke, diabetic retinopathy which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the limbs which may lead to amputations.”)
His 25-year-long struggle with diabetes destroyed his kidneys; so, with 21st Century medicine, they found a donor (possibly from his family; possible from a stranger), and gave him a new kidney. But what happened to his ORIGINAL kidney would likely happen again – this time more quickly.
To prevent that and to MAYBE kick-start his own pancreas into making the correct levels of insulin again, they began an experimental procedure that MIGHT start his pancreas making insulin again.
The next bit is difficult even for ME to understand and I have a BS degree in Biology. So, let me see if I can translate it into “normal people” English:
“Utilizing endoderm stem cells (EnSCs)”: using a big needle under sterile conditions, doctors remove these endoderm stem cells…
PAUSE. At one time, the ONLY place to get these kinds of cells was through the use of the embryos of aborted fetuses. That has changed in the third decade of the 21st Century. They CAN use the stem cells that are found in all of us, no matter our age. “‘Induced pluripotent stem cells’” are a type of cell that can be generated directly from a somatic (YOUR body cell) with the introduction of four specific genes. Doctor Shinya Yamanaka was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.”
Not ONLY that, Pluripotent stem cells hold promise in the field of regenerative medicine. Because they can propagate indefinitely, as well as give rise to every other cell type in the body (such as neurons, heart, pancreatic, and liver cells), they represent a single source of cells IN EVERY PERSON'S BODY that could be used to replace those cells or organs lost to damage or disease.
“Since these stem cells can be derived directly from adult tissues, they can ALSO be made in such a way that EVERY PERSON could have their own pluripotent stem cell line. The unlimited supplies of these pluripotent cells could be used to generate transplants without the risk of immune rejection. ***This technology has not yet advanced to a stage where therapeutic transplants have been deemed safe.** They ARE being used in personalized drug discovery efforts and understanding the patient-specific basis of disease. And work continues to make the use of these organs an effective and common procedure.
“The hope is that personalized pluripotent stem cells may one day be able to differentiate these cells into functional pancreatic islet cells – cells in the pancreas that secrete hormones, including insulin and glucagon, that help regulate blood sugar levels.”
Another advantage of using these ‘Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells’ is “to generate germ layer/tissue-specific stem cells from PSCs, which proliferate in vitro and are capable of differentiating into mature lineages, in this case, mature, functioning islets of Langerhans – the cells that produce insulin – because they are developmentally close to the desired mature cell type from the beginning, changing them into insulin-producing cells should be more efficient. Also, their restricted developmental potential provides a system to study various cell-cell interactions during differentiation into insulin-producing pancreas cells.
This treatment is NOT coming to a hospital near you any time soon!
HOWEVER, it IS COMING! Maybe not soon enough for me, but MAYBE soon enough for any of my kids or grandkids should they find themselves in the same situation I am!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell
Links: https://cells4life.com/2024/05/stem-cell-therapy-achieves-cure-for-type-2-diabetes/
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg
Not ONLY that, Pluripotent stem cells hold promise in the field of regenerative medicine. Because they can propagate indefinitely, as well as give rise to every other cell type in the body (such as neurons, heart, pancreatic, and liver cells), they represent a single source of cells IN EVERY PERSON'S BODY that could be used to replace those cells or organs lost to damage or disease.
“Since these stem cells can be derived directly from adult tissues, they can ALSO be made in such a way that EVERY PERSON could have their own pluripotent stem cell line. The unlimited supplies of these pluripotent cells could be used to generate transplants without the risk of immune rejection. ***This technology has not yet advanced to a stage where therapeutic transplants have been deemed safe.** They ARE being used in personalized drug discovery efforts and understanding the patient-specific basis of disease. And work continues to make the use of these organs an effective and common procedure.
“The hope is that personalized pluripotent stem cells may one day be able to differentiate these cells into functional pancreatic islet cells – cells in the pancreas that secrete hormones, including insulin and glucagon, that help regulate blood sugar levels.”
Another advantage of using these ‘Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells’ is “to generate germ layer/tissue-specific stem cells from PSCs, which proliferate in vitro and are capable of differentiating into mature lineages, in this case, mature, functioning islets of Langerhans – the cells that produce insulin – because they are developmentally close to the desired mature cell type from the beginning, changing them into insulin-producing cells should be more efficient. Also, their restricted developmental potential provides a system to study various cell-cell interactions during differentiation into insulin-producing pancreas cells.
This treatment is NOT coming to a hospital near you any time soon!
HOWEVER, it IS COMING! Maybe not soon enough for me, but MAYBE soon enough for any of my kids or grandkids should they find themselves in the same situation I am!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell
Links: https://cells4life.com/2024/05/stem-cell-therapy-achieves-cure-for-type-2-diabetes/
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg
