Hope for Diabetics?

An article in the newspaper today talked about new research that has "developed a potential cure for Type 2 diabetes" (Sun-Sentinel). The research, done at Washington University in St. Louis, took tissues from embryonic pig pancreases and put them into diabetic rats. The result, according to the article, was that "The tissues helped control blood sugar, curing the rats' diabetes for life." The results between female and male rats were somewhat different as the females had to eliminate high-fat diets for the cure to take place, but male rats didn't need to do that. Imagine, I would no longer have diabetes but could still eat at McDonald's. Life would be good. The other neat thing about this is that the rats' bodies didn't reject the implanted tissue. No immune-suppressing drugs associated with other transplants seem to be needed.

Of course, my neuroapathy, kidney failure, and other problems would not be cured, but at least they wouldn't get any worse because of the diabetes. Ah to be a rat. While testing is beginning on primates, it will be years before humans could benefit from this. On reading that, my hopeful feeling diminished somewhat. My other concern is the word "embryonic."

In related news, the Bush Administration announced that it could not support government funding for this research as it meant destroying embryos in order to get the tissue. Though not opposed to killing and eating pig meat, they are especially fond of pork roast, they felt that, "Even porcine embryos have the right to life."

I'm lying, of course, about that last part. Nobody in the Administration would use a word like "porcine."