WOW! Venting spleen on diabetes - in mice!

WOW! VENTING SPLEEN ON DIABETES - IN MICE!

Spleen stem cells, that is...

"[T]he adult spleen of the mouse has recently been shown to hold stem cells
that, in diabetic mice or genetically altered mice that lack a pancreas,
effectively regenerate insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas."

Sci Aging Knowledge Environ. 2005 Jan 19;2005(3)e2. PubMed abstract

Diabetes and stem cell researchers turn to the lowly spleen.

Kodama S, Davis M, Faustman DL.

Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital-East, Boston, MA
02192, USA.

The spleen gets no respect. Long seen as superfluous, the adult spleen of
the mouse has recently been shown to hold stem cells that, in diabetic mice
or genetically altered mice that lack a pancreas, effectively regenerate
insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas. Stem cells of the spleen
express Hox11, a highly conserved transcription factor that plays a major
role in the development of organs in vertebrate and invertebrate embryos.
Hox11 and other members of the Hox family of genes may give stem cells of
the spleen the capacity to mature into cell types other than islet cells,
including neurons and bone cells. Multilineage splenic stem cells may trace
to the embryogenesis and possible persistence into adulthood of a fetal stem
cell region called the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM). This Perspective calls
for reappraisal of the lowly spleen for treating diabetes and other diseases
of aging.


My thanks to Dr. Jai Maharaj for calling my attention to this...

He wrote:

Diabetes Foundation Loses its Way

Article and discussion he

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1371910/posts

Thanks Jai.

Todd