Diabetes :: essays research papers

DIABETESIn 1921, Canadian researchers isolated insulin from dog pancreases and discovered that the hormone is natural to keep backling blood sugar. Given by buckion, insulin reversed wasting in diabetic children and extended their lives. Dramatic as its effects are, however, insulin isnt a regain for diabetes. People with the disorder must monitor their blood sugar nearly and take insulin injections to reduce the risk of nerve damage and heart, kidney, and eye disease. In a small percentage of these battalion, insulin injections fail to keep blood-sugar concentrations from fluctuating wildly. Scientists and patients suit that the ideal diabetes treatment would control patients blood-sugar concentrations without requiring them to take insulin. One long-sought option is organ transplant of pancreatic cell clusters, called islets, that make insulin. Though the approach is simple, it has succeeded in solitary(prenominal) a small fraction of the attempts. This year, however, a Ca nadian team proclaimed 11 consecutive successes--islet transplants that permitted the recipients to stop taking insulin. Although there are mollify questions about the long-term safety and efficacy of this treatment, theres a sense of ardour among researchers. In Toronto at the June meeting of the Endocrine Society, David M. Harlan of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda noted, "Islet-cell transplantation, which has long been promising, appears poised to fulfill its promise." Affecting 1 million people in the United States, type I diabetes arises when a patients immune placement attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. While a pancreas transplant effectively cures the diabetes in to the highest degree ends, the procedure is difficult and expensive and few donor pancreases are available.Physicians potbelly transplant just the insulin-producing cells in a less taxing operation that doesnt require major surgery. For the past 25 years, theyve tested procedures in which they inject the cells into the major blood vessel flowing to the liver. The cells can take up residence there. After the procedure, patients must take immunosuppressive drugs. Overall, just 8 percent of people given islet-cell transplants have improved their ability to control blood-sugar concentration enough to stop taking insulin.They concerns and problems that they have been dealing with in the past are those of the transplant wiping out your immune system or even blowing your diabetes out of proportion and making the diabetic very sick. The case with the immune system wiping out would have the same similarities as soul with the disease, AIDS. This is the first study that allows the diabetic the ability to not be on insulin and not have to take pills to help the immune system.