Posted on 12/05/2016 7:18:10 AM PST by posterchild
Researchers have announced that FDA-approved artemisinins, used for decades to treat malaria, offer a completely new therapy for type 1 diabetes.
It promises to be a simple and elegant strategy to heal diabetes type 1: Replacing the destroyed beta-cells in the bodies of patients with newly-produced insulin-secreting cells.
For years, researchers around the world tried various approaches with stem- or adult cells in order to induce this transformation. Their effort lead to a fundamental understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of beta cells – however, a compound capable of doing the trick was missing
(Excerpt) Read more at thediabeticnews.com ...
They are afraid to say "fetal". Apparently, the opposite of Adult is just ... stem.
good news
While interesting, this doesn’t solve the dilemma for Type 1 diabetics by addressing the immune system’s destruction of the beta cells in the first place. There are some companies working on encapsulating beta cells in a permeable envelope that would let nutrients in and insulin out, but would block immune system cells from destroying the cells. This would be implanted to duplicate the function of natural insulin producing beta cells.
Stem cells can be gotten from adults. Fetal stem cells are a different thing.
That was my point. Researchers keep trying to find medical reasons for fetal stem cells and they have not yet found a breakthrough. But they sure do like to base experiments on fetal tissues.
Meanwhile, adult stem cells have contributed to many breakthroughs. Good stuff, and no one gets harmed.
But the journalists now refer to “stem cells” and “adult cells”. They try to conflate the two while hiding the moral problems of fetal stem cells by just saying “stem cell” or “adult stem cell”. They avoid saying “fetal” or “embryonic” and they avoid it for a reason. It’s bad PR.
Ah. Got ya.
bkmk
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