Scientists Optimistic About New Diabetes Treatment
September 17, 2013
Diabetics test their blood sugar.
From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.
And I’m Avi Arditti. Researchers are reporting progress in treating Type 1 diabetes. Today we will tell you about their findings. We also have a report about the Kepler Space Telescope. American scientists are turning their attention to all the information it has gathered over the past four years. And researchers say extreme weather could be coming our way – from the sun. We will have more about their prediction.
Researchers have come closer to improving treatment for people with Type 1 diabetes. They have successfully placed insulin-producing islet cells from one animal species into another without using anti-rejection medicines. In the future, the transplant operation could provide an unlimited supply of tissue to treat people whose bodies cannot produce insulin.
Insulin is a hormone produced naturally by the pancreas. The hormone carries glucose, a kind of sugar, to the cells for energy. Type 1 diabetes is a disorder of the body’s immune system for fighting disease. In most patients, the immune system attacks and destroys the islet cells that produce insulin. Many patients must inject themselves with insulin, simply to survive.
For a long time, scientists have sought to take islet cells from people or even from pigs and place them inside another person. Insulin exchanges from human remains have proved difficult, while animal-to-human transplants have been almost impossible.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25