Posted by Gary on October 06, 1997 at 01:24:36:
I have been a Type I diabetic for over 20 years and Sooo many times have I heard that the cure is just around the corner. But do you actually think that the big Diabetic Suppliers would allow their cash flow to stop!!!
Case in Point, The following article shows that Eli-Lilly put their money in this discovery, probably to shut them up or shut them down.
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Cure for Diabetes? Maybe Someday: Lost Islet
Cells Just Might Be Regenerated
What if non functioning pancreatic islet cells could be made to produce insulin once again. That would cure diabetes. The possibility has set the diabetes world abuzz over the past few months--ever since researchers at McGill University in Canada and the Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) successfully regenerated islet cells in diabetic hamsters.
The researchers used a mixture of proteins called Ilotropin to "turn on" nonfunctional islet cells. The treatment also caused new islet cells to grow where there had been few or none.
Since then, in a report in the May 1997 Journal of Clinical Investigations , the researchers have identified the gene that Ilotropin triggers, the one involved in regenerating the islet cells. If the human version of the same gene could be turned on in similar fashion, type I insulin-dependent diabetics and type II's who inject insulin might have their natural insulin-producing apparatus restored.
The McGill and EVMS researchers have licensed their work to the Eli Lilly company. Any islet-cell-regenerating drugs or gene therapies will be marketed by Lily.
But that day is a long way off. So far, the only beneficiaries of islet-cell regeneration have been laboratory hamsters. It will be years before anyone knows if a similar approach works in humans. But if it does, it just might cure diabetes.
Source: Diabetes Interview, June 1997
---------------------------------------------------------------