Stem Cells Harvested from Umbilical Cord Blood Proven To Produce Insulin
Here we go again. New news about stem cells and diabetes. I love the fact that scientists are looking at this from every possible angle. Researchers have reported that they were able to divide and grow adult stem cells to produce insulin. The stem cells were derived from human umbilical cord blood. Will this lead to the cure for type I diabetes?
“This discovery tells us that we have the potential to produce insulin from adult stem cells to help people with diabetes,” said Dr. Randall J. Urban, senior author of the paper, professor and chair of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and director of UTMB’s Nelda C. and Lutcher H. J. Stark Diabetes Center. Stressing that the reported discovery is extremely basic research, Urban cautioned: “It doesn’t prove that we’re going to be able to do this in people — it’s just the first step up the rung of the ladder.”
How is this different from all of the previous stem cell research? What type of importance does it play? If we were able to use our own stem cells, from our own adult blood, think about the decreased chance of error and rejection.
The lead author of the paper, UTMB professor of internal medicine/endocrinology Larry Denner, said that by working with adult stem cells rather than embryonic stem cells, doctors practicing so-called regenerative medicine eventually might be able to extract stem cells from an individual’s blood, then grow them in the laboratory to large numbers and tweak them so that they are directed to create a needed organ. In this way, he said, physicians might avoid the usual pitfall involved in transplanting cells or organs from other people — organ rejection, which requires organ recipients to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives.
My hope for people that oppose stem cell research is that are able to look at this type of research and realize that there is so many different avenues that can be explored. In the future, if our own stem cells are being harvested and used, how could this cause ethical debate? And further more, I often wonder if these very same people that are against stem cell research would change their minds if they, or a close loved one, were fighting a disease that would benefit from it. Would they want that cure?
via Science Daily
Tags: adult_blood, adult_stem_cells, diabetes_center, embryonic_stem_cells, human_umbilical_cord, insulin, organ_recipients, organ_rejection, regenerative_medicine, said_physicians, stem_cell_research
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