The Cure Is Near!

Here is good news to all sufferers of Type 1 diabetes, like my daughter.





New Stem Cell Discovery May Treat Diabetes

Researchers in Belgium have significantly advanced the discovery of a pancreatic progenitor cell with the capacity to generate new insulin-producing beta cells. If the finding made in mice holds for humans, the newfound progenitor cells may represent “an obvious target for therapeutic regeneration of beta cells in diabetes,” the researchers report in the Jan. 25 issue of the research journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press. In people with type 1 diabetes, blood sugar rises due to a loss of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body use glucose for energy.
“One of the most interesting characteristics of these [adult] progenitor cells is that they are almost indistinguishable from embryonic progenitor cells,” said Harry Heimberg at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Center at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and the Beta Cell Biology Consortium. “In terms of their structure and gene expression, there are no major differences. They look and behave just like embryonic beta cell progenitors."

“We at JDRF believe that this new research provides novel insights that may provide therapeutic potential to regenerate beta cells in type 1 diabetes,” said Patricia Kilian, Regeneration Program Director at JDRF.
Previous studies have suggested the existence of a beta cell progenitor in the pancreas after birth, but the identification and characterization of the progenitor cell has not been fully achieved. Other studies showing that replication of adult beta cells can account for beta cell turnover and expansion of beta cells under normal physiologic conditions and called into question the role or existence of a progenitor cell in regeneration. “Most people gave up looking because the cells are so few and so hard to activate,” added Heimberg.
In the new study, Heimberg’s team tied off a duct that drains digestive enzymes from the pancreas, a manipulation that led to a doubling of beta cell mass in the injured part of the pancreas within two weeks. The animals’ pancreases also began producing more insulin, evidence that the new beta cells were fully functional.
Using a genetic labeling technique, the researchers found that the new beta cells were derived from precursor cells that expressed a gene expressed in embryonic progenitor cells called Neurogenin 3 (Ngn3) and that production of the new beta cells depended on activity of this gene. He suspects the regenerative process is sparked by an inflammatory response in the enzyme-flooded pancreas.
“The most important challenge now is to extrapolate our findings to patients with diabetes,” Heimberg reported. Although he cautioned that any potential diabetes treatment remains in the future, he said “our findings reveal the significance of investigating the feasibility of both isolating facultative beta cell progenitors and newly formed beta cells from human pancreas in order to expand and differentiate them in vitro and transplant them in diabetic patients and also composing a mix of factors able to activate beta cell progenitors to expand and differentiate in situ in patients with an absolute or relative deficiency in insulin.”
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On the Net:
http://www.jdrf.org/


At this time I'd like to send out tribulations to all that have given so graciously to J.D.R.F.
Without your support, hard work, and donations, none of this could ever have happened.
We're not there yet, but we're oh so close.
Don't give up the ship, keep going the rewards are at our grasp!


P.S.
Fuck You George Bush and Stephen Harper! Thanx fer noth'n! Ya phony religious nut jobs!
Go suck big oil's dick!!!

Like Last Year...

It's rare that I come out of character . I have maybe twice in 2 years .
Last year I did to ask you , to help us , find a cure for Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes .


This year is no different .


My daughter Stephanie has Juvenile Diabetes .Steph is a one of the lucky ones . She NOW has a pump to help monitor and deliver insulin to her body .
Most people with Type 1 Diabetes don't have pumps . Her blood sugars are coming in-line much easier now . She's always been very good at monitoring her diet , but now she is almost like a normal kid .The other night we went out to dinner and for the 1st. time we could eat as a family , at our own discretion . Before we had to eat at regimented time . Now Steph can eat almost anything off the menu . The freedom she is having of eating at anytime is making her feel great . That being said this is anything but a cure .
I posted some great news the last year about Stem Cell Research and The Research being done at the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto . I know we are very close to finding a cure , and with your help (this is where I'm gonna ask for some cash) the cure(s) will be found .

Yesterday we raised over $500.00 at our 3rd. annual Diabetes Garage sale .
Here's a shot of Steph after .
Thanx to everyone who helped and who donated items to be sold .
What wasn't sold was given to charity .

If ya want to donate to Steph's

team click on here-> J.D.R.F.

At this time I want to thank all who donated to the J.D.R.F. walk .

To all my friends and family who helped on the drive , thank you .

We exceeded our goals again this year !!!

Steph and my family really appreciates it .

Hopefully the cure is near .

All who have this disease do have a healthy future now that research is getting better .

God Bless You All .

Da Wallycrawler .