Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Imagine millions of tiny insulin pumps that work really well, measuring your blood sugar hundreds of times each second and secreting just the right amount of insulin. That’s basically how the beta cells of a healthy individual’s pancreas work. Ben Stanger, M.D., Ph.D., and his research team at the University of Pennsylvania believe that people with Type 1 diabetes could harbor similar cells in their gut, and that these cells could work much better than any current form of insulin or drug therapy.
The introduction of beta-like cells into a patient to treat diabetes is a form of cell therapy. Dr. Stanger’s lab uses an approach called cellular reprogramming, which he delights in calling “cellular alchemy,” to transform cells on a genetic level. He has shown that gut cells in mice can be manipulated to detect and stabilize blood glucose levels, just like healthy beta cells. Dr. Stanger has conducted experiments on mice and samples of human intestinal cells grown in a lab, and he hopes to begin clinical studies on human subjects in the next five to 10 years.
Insulin therapy, whether by injections or a pump, is designed to mimic a functional pancreas. But doctors and patients alike recognize, even the most sophisticated pump and diligent patient can’t regulate blood glucose levels on par with an army of healthy beta cells.
http://asweetlife.org/?post_type=feature&p=35794&preview=true
The introduction of beta-like cells into a patient to treat diabetes is a form of cell therapy. Dr. Stanger’s lab uses an approach called cellular reprogramming, which he delights in calling “cellular alchemy,” to transform cells on a genetic level. He has shown that gut cells in mice can be manipulated to detect and stabilize blood glucose levels, just like healthy beta cells. Dr. Stanger has conducted experiments on mice and samples of human intestinal cells grown in a lab, and he hopes to begin clinical studies on human subjects in the next five to 10 years.
Insulin therapy, whether by injections or a pump, is designed to mimic a functional pancreas. But doctors and patients alike recognize, even the most sophisticated pump and diligent patient can’t regulate blood glucose levels on par with an army of healthy beta cells.
http://asweetlife.org/?post_type=feature&p=35794&preview=true
