More Good News Showing Embryonic Stem Cells Not Needed.(cure claimed for Type 1 diabetes in mice)

Last year, stories appeared in National Right to Life News and Today's News & Views that celebrated the breathtaking work of Dr. Denise Faustman. At the time the Lee Iacocca Foundation was raising money to support Dr. Faustman, whose research team in 2003 not only reversed but actually cured Type 1 diabetes in mice. This is of particular interest to pro-lifers because her work is proving yet again that there is no need to lethally scavenge stem cells from human embryos to treat diseases.

In late March, three articles appeared in the journal Science that confirmed the key findings of Dr. Faustman's research. And do ironies abound.

According to the Wall Street Journal's Sharon Begley, an author of one of the three confirmatory studies had co-written an extremely critical letter two years ago sent to (but never published in) the New York Times. (The Times had run an article about Dr. Faustman's work written by reporter Gina Kolata.) Among other things, the letter, written by two fellow Harvard diabetes experts, described as "patently false" Dr. Faustman's assertion that she was the first scientist to cure diabetes in mice.

Kolata's March 24, 2006, story begins this way. "Three groups of scientists report today that they independently replicated a controversial finding: severely diabetic mice can recover on their own if researchers squelch an immune system attack that is causing the disease.

"It is a discovery that was first published in 2001 and raised the hopes of people with Type 1 diabetes, which usually occurs in puberty and afflicts an estimated half-million to a million Americans. If the findings applied to humans, they might mean reversing a disease that had seemed incurable.

"The findings also gave rise to questions about using embryonic stem cells as replacement cells for diabetics, a method that is the focus of intense interest. If it is possible, in mice, for the pancreas to cure itself, and if the same finding holds true in humanswhich, so far, is entirely unknownadding embryonic stem cells as the source of new pancreas cells might provide little added benefit, if any."

In Type 1 diabetes the immune system attacks the insulin-secreting beta cells which reside in the pancreas. Insufficient insulin means blood sugar is not kept in check. This can lead to kidney failure, blindness, and amputations.