Advances in Transplant-Free Diabetes Treatment
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Issue date: 4/10/06 Section: Features
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Faustman says she is "elated" by the new work. She now says that the purpose of spleen cells is probably not that they regenerate into new pancreatic cells, but that they provide the protein that helps kill T-cells.
"You don't need any stem cells," she said. "It's amazing how the message gets messed up."
Faustman does not know why she detected the stem cells and the other labs did not.
Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca, whose wife died from Type 1 diabetes, has helped Faustman raise $9 million of $11.5 million needed to begin human clinical trials that will test the two components to killing the T-cells.
The drugs for the procedure are cheap and would be given for a short period of time. For those reasons, three major drug companies were not interested in supporting the work, Faustman said.
She hopes the procedure will eliminate the need for pancreatic cell transplants that currently require long-term regimens of immune suppressant drugs.
About 500 people have received pancreatic cells from cadavers or live donors via a transplant procedure known as the Edmonton protocol, said Peter Cleary, spokesman for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
One year after the transplants, four-fifths of the recipients could stop injecting themselves with insulin, Cleary said. But five years after the procedure, that percentage dropped to ten percent.
"You don't need any stem cells," she said. "It's amazing how the message gets messed up."
Faustman does not know why she detected the stem cells and the other labs did not.
Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca, whose wife died from Type 1 diabetes, has helped Faustman raise $9 million of $11.5 million needed to begin human clinical trials that will test the two components to killing the T-cells.
The drugs for the procedure are cheap and would be given for a short period of time. For those reasons, three major drug companies were not interested in supporting the work, Faustman said.
She hopes the procedure will eliminate the need for pancreatic cell transplants that currently require long-term regimens of immune suppressant drugs.
About 500 people have received pancreatic cells from cadavers or live donors via a transplant procedure known as the Edmonton protocol, said Peter Cleary, spokesman for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
One year after the transplants, four-fifths of the recipients could stop injecting themselves with insulin, Cleary said. But five years after the procedure, that percentage dropped to ten percent.