Spring Break
Promising diabetes treatment fails
Brett Nerad
Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: News
A promising treatment that would have allowed Type I diabetes patients to discontinue insulin injections has failed. The procedure transplanted insulin-producing cells, or islet cells, into a patient's liver. Since the cells were taken from deceased organ donors, those individuals who underwent the procedure would have been required to take immune-suppressing drugs for life.
Type I diabetes is caused when a body's immune system attacks and destroys its own islet cells. Laura Vogel, an associate biology professor, explained it is still unknown what causes the immune system to attack the insulin-producing cells.
"That's true for most autoimmune diseases," Vogel said. "It's been postulated there are hereditary factors, but that doesn't mean the children of someone with diabetes will necessarily get it too."
"[Since] diabetes is an autoimmune disease, it creates a dual problem for transplants," Vogel added, noting that transplants are often only done as a last resort and on a case-by-case basis.
"The more matched the islet cells are, the less chance of rejection there is," she said.
Stacie Chismark, an assistant biology professor at ISU and biology professor at Heartland Community College, explained that without immune-suppressing drugs, the body's immune system would kill any transplanted cells.
"So anytime you get somebody else's tissue, whether it's tissue or cells or organs, that's not yours and your immune system will see them as foreign and want to destroy them," she said. Whether the side effects of the immune-suppressing drugs outweighed the need for insulin injections depends on the condition of the patient.
Unfortunately for those that received the islet cell transplant, 86 percent were taking insulin again within two years of the procedure, as reported by the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The only time I could see [a patient not need immune-suppressing drugs] is if you use a cloning technique, where, for example, they would take maybe one of your skin cells…and basically trick that cell into thinking it's a fertilized egg," Chismark explained.
"So the cell divides like it's a pre-embryo…they could go in and take some of those cells out of there, and possibly, in the future, make those cells think that they are islet cells…and then, you got those from your body. And then you wouldn't have to take immune-suppressing drugs," Chismark added.
She noted that it would be very hard to determine when this breakthrough could occur, although it will most likely be in the near future. The news of the failure comes on the heels of a transplant success. An article printed in Voice of America reported that researches at Washington University successfully cured diabetes in rats. The scientists transplanted pancreatic cells from pigs into rats.
The result was a complete reversal of Type II diabetes.
Dr. Marc Hammerman, the lead scientist said in the article that the next step would be to transplant cells from a pig to a primate.
If those experiments are successful, human trials would be next.
Type I diabetes is caused when a body's immune system attacks and destroys its own islet cells. Laura Vogel, an associate biology professor, explained it is still unknown what causes the immune system to attack the insulin-producing cells.
"That's true for most autoimmune diseases," Vogel said. "It's been postulated there are hereditary factors, but that doesn't mean the children of someone with diabetes will necessarily get it too."
"[Since] diabetes is an autoimmune disease, it creates a dual problem for transplants," Vogel added, noting that transplants are often only done as a last resort and on a case-by-case basis.
"The more matched the islet cells are, the less chance of rejection there is," she said.
Stacie Chismark, an assistant biology professor at ISU and biology professor at Heartland Community College, explained that without immune-suppressing drugs, the body's immune system would kill any transplanted cells.
"So anytime you get somebody else's tissue, whether it's tissue or cells or organs, that's not yours and your immune system will see them as foreign and want to destroy them," she said. Whether the side effects of the immune-suppressing drugs outweighed the need for insulin injections depends on the condition of the patient.
Unfortunately for those that received the islet cell transplant, 86 percent were taking insulin again within two years of the procedure, as reported by the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The only time I could see [a patient not need immune-suppressing drugs] is if you use a cloning technique, where, for example, they would take maybe one of your skin cells…and basically trick that cell into thinking it's a fertilized egg," Chismark explained.
"So the cell divides like it's a pre-embryo…they could go in and take some of those cells out of there, and possibly, in the future, make those cells think that they are islet cells…and then, you got those from your body. And then you wouldn't have to take immune-suppressing drugs," Chismark added.
She noted that it would be very hard to determine when this breakthrough could occur, although it will most likely be in the near future. The news of the failure comes on the heels of a transplant success. An article printed in Voice of America reported that researches at Washington University successfully cured diabetes in rats. The scientists transplanted pancreatic cells from pigs into rats.
The result was a complete reversal of Type II diabetes.
Dr. Marc Hammerman, the lead scientist said in the article that the next step would be to transplant cells from a pig to a primate.
If those experiments are successful, human trials would be next.
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