Islet Cells Generation - Cure? I Think Not!

Well put Doris.  I know, I know.....it is disheartening to say the least when researchers label this research as a "cure" when it is just a "spot fix" to an immunological malfunction.  They are just "fixing a leak" rather than trying to figure out why the "plumbing isn't working in the first place".  Hmmm...  You see if they can immunology real well, then cures for Cancer, Leukemia, MS, would experience breakthroughs as well. You are talking about a system that is the body's strongest defense against sickness.  Strong isn't even the right word to describe it.

Comet - I have to admit - I always have been an optimist - and hope that studies such as what Doris has written about and the artificial pancreas (this one has been ongoing for many years - glad to see research is still ongoing) will one day be reality.  Maybe not in my time - but hopefully for the future.

I know for myself, since switching over to the insulin pump, which I feel is sort of like an "external" pump - that my way of dealing with diabetes has improved 101% compared to how I was with MDI (multiple doseage injections).  Not that my control of my diabetes wasn't that bad on MDI, I just needed to jump start myself to take better control if I wanted to continue to avoid complications of diabetes.  I am sure that Jazzsushi would agree with that one - as they are on the Omnipod.

I look forward to the day when if a "fill up" of my implant pancreas with extra insulin is all that is required - then that doesn't sound like a bad deal!

I sometimes regret not going further on on my education, as I would have loved to have been part of the team finding out what works/doesn't - in order to bring advanced studies in diabetes to fruition. Anyone else feel that way sometimes?

Gene, work is actually still proceeding on an "immunoisolated" artificial pancreas - the basic idea is to embed living islet cells in a matrix that lets nutrients and glucose in (but not immune cells & factors like cytokines) and insulin out.  The shells are made of various compounds- polymers, silicon, cartilage, etc.    The tolerances on pore sizes as you can image are very challenging.  Here's one of the better articles on pilot study - the mice were cured of their diabetes but after 6 months the microspheres failed as the islet cells die or became recognized as foreign:  http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v15/n4/pdf/nbt0497-358.pdf .

So if we were to translate this to current terms - would most trade BG testing and insulin shots for an intraperitoneal (in the gut) infusion every six months - probably not.   But if the technology improves to where the infusion (or implant) is needed only every 5 years, maybe...

Doris.....I agree with you that they have not been able to really address the issue of root causes of insulin-dependent Diabetes. That is the mystery behind finding a cure.  

I know that at the University Of St. Louis (School of Medicine maybe?) was working on study of islet-cell transplantation whereby they would implant islet cells into mice but first by putting the islets into a semi-permeable membrane (thus protecting them from rejection), but would allow insulin to be released.  The membrane thus solved the problem of rejection. I believe that it had temporarily "cured" diabetes in laboratory mice and were just beginning human trials.

This was almost 10 years ago.  I wonder what has happened since. 

Understand that even if a "cure" is found, there will be human trials that will go for a long time (lifetime?) before they become available to us folks.

The study of rejection is what is at the core of research. And if they understood how immunity "malfunctions", perhaps there would be breakthroughs in curing AIDS, cancer, where there are questions about why the body's immune system works/doesn't, or turns on itself.