Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Good news!
The team that is doing the studies on providing insulin producing cells via implantation (which I just got done talking about in the blog entry just below this) do not use fetal stem cells. On the other hand, it appears that MSNBC got the story wrong because it doesn't appear to be the case that stem cells are being used in this treatment, unless the researchers have vastly changed their protocols from the time of their last update (April 11, 2001).
In an article published in the World Journal of Surgery (World J. Surg. 25, 481-486, 2001), Boker et. al. describes the procedure as taking pancreas tissue from fresh cadavers (ie: people who have just died). They then isolate as many islet of langerhan cells (the cells that produce insulin) as possible for transplantation into the diabetic patient. Since the cells are already producing insulin, these cells are differentiated and are not stem cells.
So what have we learned here folks? Don't trust the print media to teach us science. Chances are, they're wrong. Stay tuned though, you never know what might turn up next!
The team that is doing the studies on providing insulin producing cells via implantation (which I just got done talking about in the blog entry just below this) do not use fetal stem cells. On the other hand, it appears that MSNBC got the story wrong because it doesn't appear to be the case that stem cells are being used in this treatment, unless the researchers have vastly changed their protocols from the time of their last update (April 11, 2001).
In an article published in the World Journal of Surgery (World J. Surg. 25, 481-486, 2001), Boker et. al. describes the procedure as taking pancreas tissue from fresh cadavers (ie: people who have just died). They then isolate as many islet of langerhan cells (the cells that produce insulin) as possible for transplantation into the diabetic patient. Since the cells are already producing insulin, these cells are differentiated and are not stem cells.
So what have we learned here folks? Don't trust the print media to teach us science. Chances are, they're wrong. Stay tuned though, you never know what might turn up next!
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