Category: Health and Wellness
Hi All
Transplant of cells brings hope to millions of diabetics
Date: April 20 2005
A Japanese woman is free of the symptoms of diabetes after receiving
cells from her mother's pancreas in the first transplant from a living
donor.
The woman, 27, who had had insulin-dependent diabetes since she was 15,
was given islet cells from her 56-year-old mother's pancreas.
Fears that the donor might become diabetic because of the loss of a
substantial numbers of islet cells appear unfounded.
The operation will be of interest to the millions of people with
diabetes around the world. Islet cells produce insulin, a natural
hormone which turns glucose
in the blood into energy.
Those whose cells do not produce enough insulin have to inject
themselves with it daily. Small numbers of people with diabetes have had
islet cells transplants
from cadavers, but the huge number of cells needed for each operation
has severely restricted the possibilities.
A paper from Shinichi Matsumoto and colleagues at Kyoto University,
published online on Monday by The Lancet medical journal, reveals that
the cells from
half the mother's pancreas were sufficient to free the recipient of her
insulin dependency within 22 days.
She has now been insulin-free for two months and her mother has suffered
no complications.
The daughter had severe type 1 diabetes and was having "hypos" -
hypoglycemic attacks in which she lost consciousness - every two days.
There are cultural
sensitivities around the use of pancreatic islet cells from dead donors
in Japan, so her mother volunteered.
The researchers say that the outcome was as good as that achieved with
the cells of two or more whole pancreas from dead donors. They think
this may be
due to the improved potency of islet cells from a living donor.
The transplant could last for five years, they say, and even if the
woman needs insulin injections in the future, the scientists believe she
will be free
of the "hypos" that endanger her life.
In a commentary, Stephanie Amiel from King's College, London, warns that
these are early days. "Islet transplantation is not yet a perfect
technique," she
says. "Insulin independence is by no means certain."
The drugs needed to stop the body rejecting the transplanted cells are
toxic and the long-term survival of the cells is unclear.
Up to 25 per cent of people with diabetes suffer from recurrent severe
hypoglycemia and probably 15 per cent of those cannot be improved using
conventional
therapy.
now that's what I call a real breakthrough good luck to her and to the other lucky sods diabetics in britain can only dream of such freedom...thankyou for posting this Carla...
If the cells were harvested from the diabetic's own tissue, then treated and transplanted, into the pancreas, that would cut down on the risk of rejection...man if only I had the cash I'd write the damned cheque right now...