THE CURE, SO CLOSE AND SO FAR AWAY
it was discovered in 2000 that transplanting just the islet cells from
a deceased person, to one living may have been the long sought after "cure"
for Diabetes. There was one problem though, I takes two pancreases worth
of islet cells to make the procedure work, and there just aren't enough
of these to help more than a small percentage of Diabetics who need transplants.
you may recall, until the cloning human insulin, the source for
all Diabetics came from animals, and usually from pigs. Since heart valves
are routinely transplanted from pigs to people the hope that the transplantation
of islets cell would soon follow. But politics unfortunately, have
gotten in the way. There is the fear that a virus could jump from pigs
to humans and since most influenza (flu) viruses originate from pigs anyway,
researchers are raising pigs in a virus free environment and even genetically
engineering and cloning groups to be virus free as a source of future
islet cells to cure humans. In 2001 a group of teenagers in Mexico where
transplanted and became insulin independent through this method. This
procedure was not deemed "medically safe" by most of the scientific
community, so this lifesaving treatment that could help save millions
of Diabetics, remains
The most elegant solution for an unlimited source transplantable islet cells, may come from the cloning of human stem cells. Though this research is perhaps years away, but it offers tremendous promise in not only providing a source of islet cells, but they also may reverse retinal damage, returning sight to those who have lost it, as well as curing other diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, as well as nerve or spinal damage.
There has been a deluge of misinformation about the use of stem cells and cloning, especially the notion that science might "grow" cloned humans to be carved up for replacement body parts. This is incredibly absurd, but there is legislation being considered that would make research that could lead to cures for many terrible diseases illegal, biased on this misconception.
The term for this research is called therapeutic cloning. It starts with a human egg cell, this may be fertilized with a male sperm or through a process called nuclear transfer. This is accomplished when a sample of DNA from an individual is inserted into the egg cell, this fertilized cell will, if placed into a uterus, not develop into a human being. There are, however, already in storage thousands of fertilized egg cells in fertility clinics these cells have been stored in reserve by infertile couples, but have been unused and will be eventually discarded.
cells have divided and multiplied for a period of about four days into
a structure of about twenty cells called a blastocyst which is
slightly larger than the period at the end of a sentence.
The center of this cell cluster contain special cells, these are called pluripotent stem cells, these cells if nurtured will grow into the different types of tissue which make up a human being. It's possible that these specialized cells could develop into islet cells to be transplanted to produce insulin. These cells could be cloned to provide a cheap and plentiful source of cells for all Diabetics. This process could be refined further so that a recipients own DNA through nuclear transfer could be used so that the source cells would not be rejected by the bodies immune system.
This is the argument set forth for the use of stem cells for curing Diabetes, couples have even volunteered to donate fertilized cells to be used in research. It may happen however that all research in this form will be made illegal and any scientist involved in this field within the United States could be imprisoned even if done in a privately funded facility.
The idea is to ban all research involving human cloning, even though the insulin taken by all Type I Diabetics is already created through the cloning of human insulin.
further genetic engineering, pigs could be produced with a graft of an
individual's DNA or stem cells also could be created in a similar manner,
since the resulting islet cells would have the same markings as the individual
they would be transplanted in, the hope is that the immune system would
not reject them right away, or that other research into the immune system
could "repair" and keep antibodies from attacking any newly
introduced islet cells.
There are 2 alternatives to transplantation, one new and the other "in the works" for decades.
Even though all of these approaches move closer to a cure for Diabetes, each may work better for some individuals than others. Considerations include resistance to anti-bodies, the availability to the general public, and cost.