Stem cells found in mice pancreas
An article in today's Washington Post reports on research that has found stem cells in the pancreas of mice. I'm not sure whether it matters, but it appears these were regular mice or NOD (non-obese diabetes) mice.
"This demonstrates a stem cell repair mechanism in the pancreas that, if we understand it more, then we can help develop more cures with either transplantation or with drugs that can increase the body's own stem cells and beta cells," said Paul Sanberg, director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.The full technical article was published in the journal Cell.
I think this is another example of research that can contribute to thinking differently about how our pancreases truly work. It may be a long time before this research leads to human treatment, but it's another step in the right direction.
Labels: pancreas, research, stemcells
posted by Bernard @ 6:22 AM
2 Comments:
I think this is a result of the multi-billion dollar push from JDRF under the leadership of Peter Van Etten. While I think it is a potentially useful finding, we already know how to encourage beta cell regeneration via several different methods. I continued to be dismayed at the lack of progress being demonstrated in a potentially more important field: immunology. Why does this continue to be the ugly stepsister in terms of research funding at the NIH/NIDDK, JDRF, DRI, etc.?
Thanks for the post. I know it's another "mouse study", but it seems to be a more hopeful one, at least (:-) Good way to start a weekend.
Happy Friday!
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