pancreas

Poor prenatal nutrition permanently damages function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas

... humans," Dr. Patti said. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas cannot make the hormone insulin at all; about 1 mi...affecting an estimated 18 million Americans -- the pancreas doesn't make enough insulin or the body's cells develop a resistance to its effect. Without insulin,...

U-M scientists find genes that control growth of common skin cancer

... skin and cancers arising inbrain, lung, prostate, pancreas and other gastrointestinal organs.Dlugosz and colleagues focused on the function of uncontrolled Hhpathway signaling in the growth of BCC.The investigators used genetically engineered mice in which they couldmanipulate expression of an Hh pathway com...

Chemists identify key gene in development of type 1 diabetes

...ogical events that leads to the destruction of the pancreas and the subsequent onset of type 1 diabetes. The disease is much less common than type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult onset or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, which is often associated with obesity. "We've shown that the MIF gene is crucial for...

Towards precise classification of cancers based on robust gene functional expression profiles

...ogical events that leads to the destruction of the pancreas and the subsequent onset of type 1 diabetes. The disease is much less common than type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult onset or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, which is often associated with obesity. "We've shown that the MIF gene is crucial for...

World-first Living Donor Islet Cell Transplant A Success; Procedure Offers Promise For Diabetics

... injured from cold storage, transport time and the pancreas is severely damaged by toxins which circulate in the blood stream after brain death." "Our expectation is that these islets from near-perfect organs will work better, although it's too early to tell," he says. The recipients use the same drugs to p...

Rare surgery performed to remove pancreas, prevent diabetes

...oducing cells to him after surgically removing his pancreas to eliminate constant, severe pain from chronic pa...room at UAB Hospital through removal of his entire pancreas and the hours-long wait for the pancreatic islet cells to be processed in a specialized UAB laborato...

Genetic defects give the immune system the green light to attack the pancreas

...n defective, allow the immune system to attack the pancreas ?the first in a series of mis-steps that lead to t...on’t learn this tolerance, they can infiltrate the pancreas and attack the insulin-producing beta cells.?This first step in the onset of type 1 diabetes is call...

Single-donor Islet Transplantation Procedure Shows Promise For Patients With Type 1 Diabetes

...received islet transplantation from a single donor pancreas were insulin independent one year later, according...eved with a single donor, as is also the case with pancreas transplants, to reduce the risks and costs and increase the availability of islet transplantation. ...

Precise Timing Enabled Pig-to-rat Transplants To Cure Diabetes

... days, and it takes every bit of that time for the pancreas to fully develop," Hammerman explains. "There is no pancreas before embryonic day 28, and 35-day-old pancreas is still very early-stage tissue." Hammerman and R...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

...at tells cells to release digestive enzymes in the pancreas and to cause satiety in the brain. "The more cholecystokinin that's produced, the more digestive enzymes are released and the more quickly your brain tells you that you're full ?or at least satisfied. Indeed, it also could be a potential drug for the...

Attacks of King George III's madness linked to key metabolism molecule

...hyria, they add, occurs because glucose causes the pancreas to make more insulin, which results in suppression of the PGC-1 alpha gene. The findings suggest that patients with porphyria should avoid any drugs or foods that turn on PGC-1 alpha activity in the liver, the researchers say. There could be implica...

Insulin pulses keep the liver lean

...ic, said the researchers. Insulin produced by the pancreas allows cells to take up glucose from the bloodstre...nd heart disease, Najjar added. "When we eat, the pancreas produces insulin, which stimulates the absorption of sugar and fat by the liver," Najjar said. "But ...

Researchers devise new technique for creating human stem cells

...that can be used to rejuvenate organs, such as the pancreas or heart, that are damaged by disease or trauma. Stem cells also provide a model system in which researchers can study the causes of genetic disease and the basis of embryonic development. Eggan, Melton and their colleagues decided to pursue their a...

Malfunctioning bone marrow cells sabotage nerve cells in diabetes

...re among a group of cells in organs other than the pancreas that unexpectedly produced small amounts of insulin. In pursuing that finding, he and his colleagues found that the bone marrow cells that produced insulin adversely affected nerve cells or neurons. "In our latest studies, we were surprised to disc...

New imaging technology shown to detect pancreatic inflammation in type 1 diabetes

...ruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas has already progressed significantly. Recent pro... called T lymphocytes infiltrate the islets of the pancreas (an inflammatory condition known as insulitis), causing the blood vessels to become leaky. Over time...

Life-extending protein keeps blood sugar in check

...ith an excess of the protein Sirt1 in cells of the pancreas have improved glucose tolerance and enhanced insul...f insulin, Imai explained. Insulin produced by the pancreas allows cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream and burn it for energy. A failure to make or re...

Sea Ice May Be on Increase in the Antarctic

...ith an excess of the protein Sirt1 in cells of the pancreas have improved glucose tolerance and enhanced insul...f insulin, Imai explained. Insulin produced by the pancreas allows cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream and burn it for energy. A failure to make or re...

Scientists closer to new cancer detection method

...s with malignancies of the ovaries, kidneys, lung, pancreas and brain. After the probe physically conforms to the PDGF, the molecule can be snapped on like a light switch to flash a fluorescent signal. Tan, the associate director of UF's Center for Research at the Bio/Nano Interface, is seeking to patent th...

Embryonic stem cells accrue genetic changes

... in the body, in theory they could replace certain pancreas cells in people with type I diabetes, or regenerate brain cells lost in a person with Parkinson's disease, for example. The analyses of the embryonic stem cell lines and the computer comparisons of the mounds of resulting data required the efforts ...

Researchers reverse juvenile diabetes in animal model

...itic cells into the abdominal/pelvic area near the pancreas and lymph nodes, blocks the T cells as they travel to the pancreas to destroy beta cells. "We did this in mice, giving them six injections over the course of several...

Darkness unveils vital metabolic fuel switch between sugar and fat

...ene previously was thought to be restricted to the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract. Yet messenger RNA for...e's expression in their livers ?it remained in the pancreas and stomach. The gene was expressed in the livers of some mice from a double-mutant strain that has...

Johns Hopkins lab scientists tame overactive CF protein

...ck, sticky mucous in several organs, including the pancreas and the lungs, leading to malnutrition, chronic lung infections and lung damage. Cells have a built-in quality-control machinery called ERAD (endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation), which chemically "marks" defective proteins for destruction ...

Researchers discover which organs in Antarctic fish produce antifreeze

...teins (AFGP) originate primarily from the exocrine pancreas and the stomach, say Cheng, Paul A. Cziko and Cliv...rs found the absence of liver synthesis and strong pancreas expression in newly hatched fish larvae and young juveniles. The exocrine pancreas is the larger of...

Successful transplantation from pig embryos to mice

... available for transplantation. Insulin-producing pancreas tissues from animals could potentially provide a nearly unlimited supply for transplantation. But until now, attempts to transplant such animal tissues into non-human primates have evoked a fierce immune response. However, embryonic tissues, such as ...

New study reveals signaling pathways required for expansion of pancreas stem cells

...system. Islet beta cells are spread throughout the pancreas and are made up of two types of cells: alpha cells...stry. "Our work focused on guiding stem cells, or pancreas progenitors, to differentiate into beta cells. This approach required that we increase the number of...

Immune system police learn early and sometimes badly

...ore of the ones that recognize autoantigens on the pancreas and we need the ones that recognize tumors to be less frequent." The fact that most regulatory T cells in the body come directly from the thymus, not from other circulating T cells, also was previously unknown, Dr. Pacholczyk says. "Where they come...

Gardenia fruit compound starting point for diabetes therapy

... UCP2 appear to inhibit insulin secretion from the pancreas and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. "We thi...nsulin secretion in control but not UCP2-deficient pancreas cells. They further found that acute addition of genipin to isolated pancreatic tissue reversed hig...

Increased sensitivity to nerve signals keeps diabetes at bay

Nerve signals relayed directly to the pancreas after eating a meal play a critical role in normal...reatment, the researchers said. Mice in which the pancreas cells that produce insulin, or beta cells, lack so-called M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors deve...

Insulin receptor stops progression of Alzheimer's disease

...is known to destroy insulin producing cells in the pancreas and cause diabetes. When injected into the brains of rats, the compound mimicked the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease ?plaque deposits, neurofibrillary tangles, diminished brain size, impaired cognitive function, cell loss and overall brain d...

Gene chip technology shows potential for identifying life-threatening blood infection

...e - a toll greater than deaths from breast, colon, pancreas and prostate cancer combined. Currently, a diagnosis of sepsis or non-infectious systemic inflammation is made by sending cultures of patients' blood, sputum, or urine to the laboratory for analysis, which can take several days. Gene chips could c...

Autoimmune disease triggered if T cells miss a single protein early on

...ites where autoimmune diseases emerge, such as the pancreas in the case of type 1 diabetes, or the joints in rheumatoid arthritis. The discovery, from a mouse model of a human autoimmune condition, suggests that effective strategies to treat autoimmune disease should target not only the "peripheral" sites ...

Proteins anchor memories in our brain

...ites where autoimmune diseases emerge, such as the pancreas in the case of type 1 diabetes, or the joints in rheumatoid arthritis. The discovery, from a mouse model of a human autoimmune condition, suggests that effective strategies to treat autoimmune disease should target not only the "peripheral" sites ...

Nano-devices hold promise for early-stage cancer detection

...ening in target organs systems such as the breast, pancreas and gastrointestinal tract and the relaying of information to an external receiver; developing ingestible and insertable non-invasive imagers for routine screening of pancreatic and gastrointestinal tumors; sensors that can detect food- and water...

Diabetes slows nerve recovery after heart transplant

...mellitus is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Such a deficiency results in increased concentrations of glucose (sugar) in the blood, which can damage many of the body's systems. Diabetes mellitus is ...

Major link in brain-obesity puzzle found

...wn as adipose tissue, as well as the liver, heart, pancreas and muscle. Rui and his team also explored the role of SH2B1 in fat cells, finding that the knockout mice that lacked the SH2B1 gene stored away much more fat than normal mice, and had much larger fat cells ?giving them two-and-a-half times more ...

Researchers first to map gene that regulates adult stem cell growth

...ll populations in tissues such as the liver, skin, pancreas or brain may be similarly affected by Latexin. This could open up new therapeutic strategies such as using stem cells for the treatment of other diseases and conditions such as liver disease, diabetes and central nervous system damage as a result of ...

Elucidation of the genome for diabetics with DNA chips

...eins playing major roles in the development of the pancreas and of insulin-producing cells: TCF7L2, HHEX, EXT2 and SLC30A8. TCF7L2 and HHEX encode transcription factors (molecules regulating the activity of other genes) controlling the Wnt signalling pathway essential for cell survival. Studies in animals...

Decoding protein structures helps illuminate cause of diabetes

...ays. "Somehow that mechanism is causing holes [in pancreas cells], which cause disease." To break down this dynamic process, he adds, "We need tools that not only allow us to probe the molecular structures, but also look at how the structures change in time." Zanni's research group uses a method, known as...

Adult stem cells from human cord umbilical cord blood successfully engineered to make insulin

...ch complex signals produced by the embryonic mouse pancreas were used to direct adult stem cells to begin developing, or "differentiating," into islet-like cells. As they grew these adult stem cells in the laboratory, the researchers conducted other tests in which the cells to be engineered showed evidenc...