Monday, March 14, 2005

November 13, 2003 Regeneration of insulin-producing islets may lead to diabetes cure

November 13, 2003 Regeneration of insulin-producing islets may lead to diabetes cure

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 11:49 AM 7 comments

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Aging Articles Diabetes Future Diabetes Drugs May Target New Protein Interaction

Aging Articles Diabetes Future Diabetes Drugs May Target New Protein Interaction: "In the March 3 issue of Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers report that two proteins best known for very different activities actually come together to turn the liver into a sugar-producing factory when food is scarce. Because the liver's production of sugar is a damaging problem in people with diabetes, the proteins' interaction might be a target for future drugs to fight the disease, the researchers say."

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 2:34 PM 0 comments

Diabetes raises risk of liver cancer 2-3 times-study

Reuters AlertNet - Diabetes raises risk of liver cancer 2-3 times-study: "Patients suffering from diabetes could be two to three times more likely to develop cancer of the liver, researchers said on Tuesday.

Chronic infections with hepatitis C and B, cirrhosis and a family history of the illness are risk factors for liver cancer but even without any of these, diabetics have higher odds of getting the disease.

'Diabetes is associated with a two-to-three-fold increase in the risk of liver cancer, regardless of the presence of other major risk factors,' said Dr Hashem El-Serag, an epidemiologist at the Houston Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Texas.

But he added that the cancer is very rare and the overall risk to a diabetes patient is low."

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 2:18 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 24, 2005

AIIMS pioneers stem cell injection for reviving heart muscles - Angsuman's Java and Web Blog

AIIMS pioneers stem cell injection for reviving heart muscles - Angsuman's Java and Web Blog

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 6:43 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Yorkshire Post Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More

Yorkshire Post Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More: "Transplant op offers hope for diabetes cure
Yorkshire surgeon's pioneering work
A CURE for diabetes has moved a step closer following a groundbreaking transplant operation by a Yorkshire-born surgeon.
Mike Waites
Health Correspondent
Professor James Shapiro and a team of doctors in Japan removed part of the pancreas from a healthy woman and transplanted insulin-producing cells from the organ into her 27-year-old diabetic daughter.
Within minutes the transplanted cells began producing insulin. Tests have shown she no longer requires insulin injections, raising the possibility the transplant could be used as a routine treatment.
In 2000, Prof Shapiro, who is based in Edmonton, Canada, but was born and brought up in Leeds, pioneered the use of insulin-producing islet cells taken from the pancreas of dead organ donors in an operation which has now been performed worldwide on more than 500 patients.
But it is believed the use of tissue from living donors will improve the quality of transplanted cells, reduce the side-effects and make the treatment more widely available.
Doctors say they need to carry out further trials of the technique amid concerns pancreatic damage in living donors could put them at risk of diabetes but are hopeful the latest success could offer the prospect of a cure for Type 1 patients.
Prof Shapiro said it was a 'major' step forward. Both mother and daughter had left hospital and were doing well.
Before the operation, the daughter had suffered several diabetic comas caused by low blood sugar and had been waiting for a transplant from a dead donor using islets which were often damaged following death.
'She's being monitored closely. We will have to wait and see how long the cells last but we hope it will be indefinitely,' he said.
'It's the first one we've done but so far it looks very promising.
'Our expectation is that these islets from near-perfect organs will work better although it's too early to tell.
'Living donor islet transplants could allow many more desperate patients with Type 1 diabetes to get successful islet transplants.'"

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Digital, easy to use Blood Pressure Monitor - Cool Tools

Digital, easy to use Blood Pressure Monitor - Cool Tools

posted by Angsuman Chakraborty @ 9:15 PM 0 comments