Hello All; I think we could all use a 'bodyguard' or two like these. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gains made toward cell transplants for diabetes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright =A9 1996 Nando.net Copyright =A9 1996 Reuter Information Service WASHINGTON (Jul 4, 1996 9:35 p.m. EDT) - Holding out new hope for=20 diabetics, scientists for the first time have successfully=20 transplanted insulin-producing cells into the pancreas of a mouse. "We want to emphasise we're still in the early stages," and something=20 that works in induced-diabetes in a rodent may not be successful in=20 human beings, lead researcher Dr. Henry Lau, a transplant surgeon at=20 Johns Hopkins Medical School, said in an interview this week. "But=20 what we have reported is a new way of immunosuppression." Lau and his colleagues at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where=20 he was until moving to Hopkins in Baltimore, and the University=20 Hospital of Zurich report their findings in Friday's edition of the=20 journal Science. Past transplant attempts had failed when the mice rejected the graft.=20 This time, the researchers transplanted both the insulin-producing=20 islet cells as well as an altered muscle cell meant to block the death=20 signals the body's immune system tries to send to the foreign cell. These altered muscle cells acted like "bodyguards" to protect the=20 islets. In the mice experiments, the implanted cells produced insulin=20 for an average of 80 days and the mice maintained their normal levels=20 of glucose, a blood sugar, said Chris Stoeckert, his collaborator at=20 Children's Hospital. Although 80 days is a long time in the life of a mouse, it is not yet=20 known how long a parallel procedure might work in humans, or whether=20 it could be a relatively simple outpatient procedure repeated at=20 regular intervals for the diabetic patient. In insulin-independent diabetes, patients lose all their=20 insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. With no insulin to mop it up,=20 a form of sugar known as glucose reaches dangerous levels in the body. The new approach to transplant and rejections may also lead to=20 developments that could help people having other kinds of organ and=20 tissue transplants, the scientists said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- from your=20 sister parkie in paradise where the frangipani tree at my gate=20 is now dressed in creamy perfumed blossoms [log in to unmask] =20