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A 'Mini-Organ' Delivering Real Insulin in Real Time

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Hi Northerner,

You beat me to it!🙂How exciting it all is - I wonder how long before it is rolled out worldwide - hopefully trials will show good results.:DBev
 
All very interesting indeed. I just hope it's a concept that becomes a reality if it actually works. As they've said:
We anticipate the first clinical trials will take place in 2014.
Click to expand...
So the starting of the 'first' clinical trials is 1 year+ away, then to see if it actually works as it's supposed to, then all the other phases of clinic trials and if it's still successful through to approval. All this assuming they get enough funding to progress to the final stage. So it's going to be many years (5-10 anyone?) heard that before 😛 before something like this could be a viable solution for anyone. But at least these things are being worked on and we are always moving forward. One day...one day.
 
Hmm I am sceptical.

"Diabetes Dad" (facebook, twitter etc) posted about this last night saying it was going to be a huge announcement about a "cure" today.....and it was not at all.

It's great these things are being worked on yes....but gosh hurry up!
 
lauraw1983 said:
Hmm I am sceptical.

"Diabetes Dad" (facebook, twitter etc) posted about this last night saying it was going to be a huge announcement about a "cure" today.....and it was not at all.

It's great these things are being worked on yes....but gosh hurry up!
Click to expand...

Yes, I have had the impression there are quite a lot of people feeling a little let-down and deflated - a big build-up to something that is probably 5-10 years away and still involving what sounds like a very expensive surgical procedure. A concept like this would probably not have been dreamt of 10 years ago though, so it is good to see that there are new innovations being applied as a matter of priority 🙂

(here's a link to Diabetes Dad's site: http://diabetesdad.org/2013/03/05/a-message-from-diabetes-dad/ )
 
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Northerner said:
Yes, I have had the impression there are quite a lot of people feeling a little let-down and deflated - a big build-up to something that is probably 5-10 years away and still involving what sounds like a very expensive surgical procedure. A concept like this would probably not have been dreamt of 10 years ago though, so it is good to see that there are new innovations being applied as a matter of priority 🙂

(here's a link to Diabetes Dad's site: http://diabetesdad.org/2013/03/05/a-message-from-diabetes-dad/ )
Click to expand...

Yes definitely, especially those people with little ones with this condition who are just desperate for a cure. I know we all are but to see little ones free of it....wow.

I can't wait to see the headlines "Type 1 diabetes ERADICATED" Sigh.

But yes, it is good things are being worked on...however that BioHub site is a bit....ooh we are working on this....but give us money please to continue! Things in America are of course always different to here though but they will probably lead the way as money talks.
 
Small Wonders On A Cellular Battlefield

Like any valuable home, the worth of the BioHub is significantly enhanced by a new, more hospitable, neighborhood. The ?old neighborhood,? the site currently used for most islet transplants, is the liver. ?We see we can achieve a cure, when we transplant these [islet] cells today,? Stabler said. ?It?s just not a long-lasting cure. We can?t keep the cells alive. While the liver works well in some respects, we want to find a better site.?

One drawback to transplanting islets into the liver is their direct contact with blood. ?Whenever you have something foreign in your bloodstream, your blood clots,? she explained. ?While we may give anti-clotting drugs to help mitigate this, we still have a lot of inflammation. This inflammation is like waving a red flag to the immune system. It instigates a response that leads to the loss of islets.?

Another problem is the liver?s role in metabolizing drugs given to fight inflammation or suppress the immune system. ?When you take drugs, they get metabolized by your liver, so you have a higher concentration of them in the liver than elsewhere,? said Stabler. ?This is not necessarily good, because the drugs often have undesirable side effects on the islets. We know that many of the drugs we use for immunosuppression now cause islet dysfunction, and we want to avoid that.?

With these obstacles affecting the liver as a transplant site, the DRI?s preferred option is the omental pouch, or omentum, which hangs in front of the abdomen. ?The omentum is very interesting tissue,? Stabler pointed out. ?It appears that there are cells in it that facilitate healing and mitigate inflammation ? all the things you want when you transplant something. For example, many decades ago, if you had severe trauma to your hand, surgeons would open up your abdomen, wrap the omentum around your hand and suture your hand into your abdomen. After several weeks, they would unstitch you and remove the hand, and it would be healed.? The same nurturing properties should make the omentum an ideal place to implant the BioHub.

http://insulinnation.com/small-wonders/#.UTj9ZRx1GSo

🙂
 
Not wanting to appear stupid but our bodies destroyed the cells in our pancreas so if this organ was implanted who's not to say our bodies wouldn't kick in again & destroy it?

Or am I missing something in the article?
 
Lauras87 said:
Not wanting to appear stupid but our bodies destroyed the cells in our pancreas so if this organ was implanted who's not to say our bodies wouldn't kick in again & destroy it?

Or am I missing something in the article?
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm afraid so - the good thing about this work is that the stem cells/beta cells will be protected from the immune system 🙂
 
I remember them doing that with someone who crushed his hand in a piece of machinery in the 1990's, they mended all the functions but there was too much skin to graft really so after lots of unsuccessful attempts they did that. We were the EL insurers and it fell to me to be condemned to have to hear all the latest gory details on an ongoing basis. Fascinating but absolutely ghastly. Yuk.

But incidentally, it is exactly where they transplant kidneys, which amazed me when I heard that - now this explains why that is.

So that's the something new I've learned today!
 
wow! this is exciting!
 
alan - love that link!

Solution to all the diabetic's world's problems: go eat a cupcake 😉
 
I have the stock of cupcakes to hand.

Yawn.

ROFL
 
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