NYPost

STEM CELLS FOUND IN SKIN: STUDY

August 14, 2001 -- In a startling scientific breakthrough, researchers have discovered adult stem cells in skin.

The find raises hopes that skin could one day be used as a source of stem cells compatible with a patient's immune system.

"When I first told people we were looking for neural stem cells in skin, they thought I was off my rocker," said Freda Miller, one of the researchers at McGill University in Montreal.

Stem-cell researcher Richard Poulsom said: "It makes you wonder if there are cells in most tissues you could extract and get to do these things."

Stem cells are immature cells that doctors hope can assist in creating organs for transplants, wiping out cancer and providing other lifesaving therapies.

The findings were reported in Nature Cell Biology Journal and New Scientist magazine.

Post Wire Services

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Answers

OMG! Stem cells in skin! Look out! The UN, Illuminati, NWO, Global Conspiracy will be abducting all the useless eaters off the street to clone designer spare parts for the Filthy Rich!

We will all be FORCED to use sunscreen! LOOK OUT! Long-sleaved shirts and Brockabrellas for everyone! Write your congressman! Stop the madness!!!!!!!

Oh...wait a sec...this isn't Timebomb.

Never mind.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

BK, don't go there. (;

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

I want Git's diabetes cured, no doubt of that. But I hope if stem cells are part of the cure they can be harvested from umbilical cord blood and in harmless ways from people instead of embryos.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

You might get your wish, Helen! But non-embryonic stem cells don't work for all diseases--I think Parkinson's is one--and this article is full of ifs where adult stem cells are concerned.

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s104966.htm Single injection cures diabetes Wednesday, 1 March 2000

American scientists have reversed diabetes in mice by injecting cells under the skin that evolve into insulin secreting organs.

In the current issue of Nature Medicine, the University of Florida researchers explain how they harvested stem cells in the earliest stages of mice development and grew them into organs called Islets of Langerhans. These organs are part of the pancreas and contain beta cells which secrete insulin.

After maturing, the tiny organs were injected under the skin of the same, diabetic, mice. Blood vessels grew towards them and after a few days the substitute islets were fully functional and able to regulate the glucose level in the body during the study period, which lasted three months.

Until now, to reverse diabetes, it was necessary to either take a transplant of the whole pancreas or the islets. Scientists have tried to transplant insulin-producing islet cells, but the method does not work well and the cells are scarce.

"This is very exciting, because the cells can be placed very simply into an individual with no need for a complicated surgical procedure", says Ammon B. Peck, professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at UF's College of Medicine.

Stem cells are a source of new cells in the body and have the ability to grow into a range of organs during development. Their potential was discovered a year ago, when scientists claimed that they could possibly be used as an alternative to tissue or even organ transplants.

The method the Florida researchers used is comparable to techniques used in bone marrow transplantation in cancer patients, after it's been destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation. There is one key difference: this time the stem cells were first grown into complete organs, before placing them back into the body.

In patients suffering from diabetes, a self-directed attack from the immune system destroys the Islets of Langerhans, resulting in the disability to produce insulin, which allows the body's cells to use glucose as an energy fuel. In a response, the body starts producing more glucose and tries to address alternative energy stores, like fat, to introduce more fuel into the blood stream. Consequently, the glucose levels in the blood rise rapidly (hyperglaecemia) and potentially poisonous by-products from the extensive fat metabolism (ketones) are released.

A controversial source of stem cells are human embryos - usually left over from the attempt to make test-tube babies. But they also are present in adults, even in diabetes patients who lost their insuline-secreting cells. If those cells could be used for regeneration and transplantation, organ donors could be used as a source, which "could possibly bypass (the need for) embryonic cells.", according to Dr. Schatz, professor of pediatrics and a diabetes expert at Florida University, who worked on the experiment as well.

At present scientists are duplicating the study in the laboratory, using human cells, and hope to begin implantation in primates soon, which would pave the way for eventual human trials.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Seems the research is growing fast in this area.

perhaps Bush's announcement was a bit late. LOL

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Git, if you can get a diabetes cure out of adult stem cells obtained from human skin, you are welcome to the skin off my ample backside -- both cheeks even!

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

LOL Helen!

That just got me thinking about all those foreskins the hospitals toss out from the baby boys each day!

I wonder if Git would take a cure developed from one of those...

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

I think I'd prefer my own arse, thanks very much! Kind of you to offer, though. (Snort!)

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001