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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Cryogenic Solutions Inc. (CYGS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: makin_dough99 who wrote (3061)	8/17/1998 10:21:00 AM
From: celeryroot.com	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4028

bloomberg.com@@*SkSygcAR@zpbSrU/mag/ft_9809_smallcap.html

To: makin_dough99 who wrote (3061)	8/17/1998 10:27:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4028

Re: Antisense and Diabetes Beta cell expansion strategies. Much attention is focused on the general problem of beta cell growth, development and function in the hope of finding new sources of insulin-producing cells for transplantation. Because beta cell mass can not be expanded in a meaningful way either in vivo or with tissue culture, an increasing number of investigators are working on such basic problems as the embryology of the endocrine pancreas (30), differentiation of duct cells (31), the mechanisms of beta cell replication (32) and the apoptosis of beta cells (33). Even in adulthood, new beta cells are constantly produced either by differentiation of pancreatic duct cells or through replication of preexisting beta cells (31). The hope is that with the right combination of growth and differentiation factors, or some genetic manipulation, beta cell expansion could provide cells for transplantation. One approach to expansion is to create beta cell lines. Considerable progress has been made with rodent islet cells (34,35), but the quest to obtain similar lines of human cells has proved to be more difficult (36). Even the best rodent cell lines have deficiencies limiting their value for transplantation; there are concerns about their neoplastic nature, their capacity to produce insulin is low, and even though some can secrete insulin when exposed to glucose, their performance still falls far short of normal beta cells. Efforts are underway to use the powerful tools of genetic engineering to improve the performance of some of these cell lines so that they might be useful. Not only can insulin production be improved by transferring human insulin promoter sequences into rodent cell lines, but glucose responsiveness can be enhanced by transfection of the glucose transporter GLUT2 and the use of antisense RNA for hexokinase, which can bring the glucokinase/hexokinase ratio closer to that of normal beta cells (37,38). However, the mechanisms responsible for physiological insulin secretion from normal beta cells are turning out to be so complex and sophisticated that it may be very difficult to mimic this machinery by changing the expression of a few genes. It will probably be necessary to alter differentiation in a more fundamental way, such as through expression or repression of transcription factors, that will take into account ion channels, energy handling, lipid metabolism and more. A molecular approach that might lead to a more "normal" beta cell is to manipulate oncogenes by controlling gene expression with a tetracycline response element. Valuable cell lines have been generated in transgenic mice using the oncogene T antigen driven by the insulin promoter, so that the beta cells of these mice are hyperplastic (because of the specificity of the insulin promoter; the oncogene is not expressed in any other cell type) (34). With additional genetic engineering using the bacterial tetracycline resistance operon regulatory system, the T antigen can be turned off either in vitro or in vivo with very low concentrations of tetracycline or one of its analogs, allowing the cells to redifferentiate and function like normal beta cells (39). This approach makes it theoretically possible to expand beta cell mass to whatever level might be required and then, by turning off the oncogene, be left with a useful population of cells. Mice may not be an ideal species for xenotransplantation, but the same technology might be used to make similar cells in transgenic pigs. Source: islet.org ===== I truly do hope a cure is found for diabetes. I truly do hope that Dr. Conrad's technology plays a role in that regard. But to hope that CYGS has a "cure" is simply false hope. If CYGS has implied to you that they do, then, IMO, they are giving you false and misleading information. Barry, is CYGS implying in any way, shape or form that they are close to curing any disease, let alone diabetes? - Jeff