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Study says capsules around insulin cells may help them succeed as transplants
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 30 - 07 - 2007

Tiny capsules made from seaweed and iron may help diabetics whose bodies reject insulin-cell
transplants, according to AP.
Researchers trying to understand why those transplants
work for some people with Type I diabetes, but not for
others, found success in experiments with mice and pigs.
Type I diabetes is the type usually beginning in
childhood. It occurs when a person's immune system destroys
the cells in the pancreas that make insulin.
The American Diabetic Association estimated that 20.8
million Americans have diabetes, though not all cases have
been diagnosed. Between 5 percent and 10 percent of those
are Type I, according to the National Diabetes Education
Program.
Insulin helps the body process sugar. Without it, sugar
levels in the blood rise and can result in complications
such as blindness or kidney failure.
Injections of insulin can help if the patient carefully
monitors blood sugar levels. Transplanting new insulin
cells might be more effective, unless they, too, are
destroyed.
Insulin-cell transplants remain an experimental procedure.
The Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry reports just
319 cases in North America between 1999 and 2005.
In an effort to learn what happens to transplanted cells,
researchers from Johns Hopkins University encapsulated them
in a matrix made from alginate _ derived from seaweed _ and
an iron-containing material so they could track the cells
magnetically.
«It's very exciting, because now you will be able to see
what's going on with all these cells. We hope it will help
us understand the disease process and what's been going
on,» Dr. Aravind Arepally, an assistant professor of
radiology and surgery at Hopkins, said in a telephone
interview.
Their findings were published online Sunday in the journal
Nature Medicine.
The porous capsules had openings large enough to let
insulin out for the body to use, but not big enough for
immune cells to get in and attack the transplants.
In the first experiment, the capsules _ less than one
hundred twenty-eighths of an inch (one-third of a
centimeter) across _ were implanted in diabetic mice. The
researchers said the blood sugar levels of the mice
returned to normal in about a week. More than half of the
mice that did not receive transplants died.
Researchers then moved on to swine. Capsules were
implanted in the liver rather than the pancreas because the
liver has more blood vessels that can carry the insulin to
the rest of the body.
The team threaded a long needle-like tube into a large
vein near the upper thigh and guided the tube upward,
across and into a neighboring blood vessel and then into
the liver.
Three weeks later, the capsules were still in place and
were releasing insulin at usable levels, the researchers
reported.
Co-author Jeff Bulte, professor of radiology and chemical
and biomolecular engineering, said the hope is that the
capsules will reduce the need for anti-rejection drugs in
people receiving transplants.
Arepally said the researchers are beginning a longer-term
trial in pigs and are working with a private company to
begin the process of seeking Food and Drug Administration
approval.
Dr. Larry C. Deeb, president of the American Diabetes
Association, said it is fascinating that researchers could
track the implants.
«That doesn't mean you can make it work to cure
diabetes,» he said. «These are the kinds of things where
you do research and find something interesting and see
where it leads you.»
«I tell my patients that we're beating down the doors,
slowly but surely,» in the search for a cure, said Deeb, a
pediatric endocrinologist in Tallahassee, Florida.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of
Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.


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