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By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 11/14/2003
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have harnessed newly discovered cells from an unexpected source, the spleen, to cure juvenile diabetes in mice, a surprising breakthrough that could soon be tested in local patients and open a new chapter in diabetes research.
The MGH scientists injected diabetic mice with the spleen cells. The cells migrated to their pancreases, prompting the damaged organs to regenerate into healthy, insulin-making organs, ending their diabetes.
This is among the few documented cases of a major organ regenerating itself in an adult mammal. The research also finds a potential use for the spleen, long considered an organ with no apparent purpose.
"This shows there might be a whole new type of therapy that we haven't tapped into," said Dr. Denise Faustman, MGH immunology lab director and lead author of the new study, which appears today in the journal Science. "We've figured out how to regrow an adult organ."
Dr. George King, Joslin Diabetes Center research director, who was not involved in the research, said: "That you could just take spleen cells, infuse them, and somehow the pancreas is regenerated, that's exciting . . . The next step is to see if it can be done in humans."
Posted by P6 at November 14, 2003 09:16 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2302In 2002, the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Diabetes Research made diabetes research history by reversing and curing type 1diabetes in mice. Using a mechanism that allowed the re-growth of the missing insulin secreting tissue, the disease has not re-occured in these mice. We were greatly encouraged by these findings as they confirmed that we have been pursuing a path that we hoped would lead to discovering a cure for type 1 diabetes in humans. Furthermore, it was discovered that this finding could provide us with important clues to also treat other autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The ability to re-grow missing adult organs in adult animals opens up future treatment possibilities never visualized.
Over the past year, we have committed a significant clinical research effort to study diabetic blood from people in all stages of diabetes for the same potentially treatable defects. Currently the data is very encouraging as it indicates that the markers of disease and treatment will be very similar between the mouse and human with diabetes.
The Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Diabetes Research has secured approval to take this exciting potential therapy to human clinical trial. However, the greatest obstacle in our path is the lack of funds to carry on these clinical trials that we believe could mark a breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes and other diseases. We ask you to please consider becoming our partner in this innovative and promising research by making a charitable gift in support of our goal to cure type 1 diabetes. For further information or to inquire on creative ways to make a gift, please contact: (617) 724-6432 or email us at [email protected]. To make a gift online or read additional information on this study, please visit our website at www.massgeneral.org/diabetes.