back to article Men may be able to grow a new pancreas from their testicles

Topflight geneticists say they have managed to cure diabetes in mice by grafting material from dead men's testicles onto them. The development may mean that in future, human (male) diabetes sufferers can in effect grow a replacement bollock-based pancreas from such tissues. According to an announcement from the lab involved, …

COMMENTS

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  1. Kool-Aid drinker
    Coat

    May I be the first to say

    It sound like a load of bollocks to me.

    Coat acquisition underway thank you.

  2. lansalot
    Happy

    Another line to keep in the bank...

    "Oh go on, love, please!! It's good for the skin; and cures diabetes !!!"

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    URL

    Hmm was just going to send my wife a link to this (me being a diabetic) but on seeing the URL I think i'll run it through tiny url first :)

  4. Ralph B
    Alert

    Let's just have this clear ...

    You won't be growing a new pancreas from MY testicles.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      title

      Come on! Why do you think nature gave you a spare? :)

  5. Ted Treen
    Joke

    I was tempted...

    ...to say "Bollocks"...

    but I was too knackered.

  6. Uplink

    Perfect donors

    Reading the article, I came up with this idea: Do you know the Catholic priests? They are the perfect donors. They're not supposed to marry, thus not supposed to have sex and reproduce, so imagine how many people their testicles can save! But then I heard this voice in my head saying: thing of the children!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Catholic priests

      also have that voice- that's why they get into the papers...

      Saying that, it's a good point- plus they're helping the needy (a good thing for Christians) and having holes poked in them (which Christ underwent, though in a different part of the body). Oh, AND they're putting otherwise wasted testicular matter to waste (which, if my memories of Monty Python are correct, is good for Catholics).

    2. Graham Marsden
      Coat

      "thing [sic] of the children"?

      Are you planning on bringing back castrati too?!

  7. Fred 4
    Unhappy

    Doesnt work as promised

    Problem: no insulin producing cells (beta cells)

    Question: why?

    Answers:

    1 - type 1 diabetes

    2 - pancreatic cancer

    3 - severe pancreatitis

    re - #1 - Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune system failure. The person's own immune system is/has attacked the insulin producing cells - killing them. Producing more cells from testes or else where from the same person results in - guess what - more auto immune system based destruction of Beta cells. ergo - sooner ( more likely) or later no more beta cells -- again.

    re #2 - well.... the only time in which the teste based replacement therapy might be useful would be when the pancreas was removed, other wise the cancer is likely to spread to the 'new' pancreas.

    re#3 - this is one place where it will be useful. The lab I work in is doing an experimental therapy, for patient's who's pancreas is being removed. We take the removed pancreas, remove and isolate the beta cells, then re-inject them into the patient into the liver. Where they function normally. However, this is a stop gap measure, as eventually they will all die off; as there are no more pancreatatic stem cells (no pancreas) there is no renewal of the beta cells. So... when they die they are gone.

    This new therapy could be very useful here. Although, I suspect that root cause of the original pancreatitis will return and damage the new organ.

    1. Code Monkey

      Title

      Oh nuts

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    Aww Ma Ballz

    Diabetes or bustin' a nut. Life's never fair for us.

  9. Richard Cartledge
    Unhappy

    No way

    Most men would rather have diabetes than have their tail chopped off.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      title required

      spoken by someone who is not diabetic. If it cures diabetes they can take my left nut any time. i only need one.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Wrong

        "spoken by someone who is not diabetic. If it cures diabetes they can take my left nut any time. i only need one."

        That's not the right nut!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    cure diabetes in mice by grafting material from dead men's testicles onto them

    Anyone else immediately visualise the picture of that poor sod of a mouse with an ear grafted onto its back, but instead of an ear a nad sack?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    I Wondered what that lump of pus was

    <- keyboard vomit

  12. M7S
    Coat

    Problem for anaphylactic cannibals

    Body parts: May contain Nuts

  13. Mike Moyle
    Coat

    "medi-prof G Ian Gallicano"

    For this he rates a "Med-Boffin", surely!

    (Would a scientist specializing in reproductive issues be a "Boffin' Boffin"? ...Inquiring minds, and all that...)

  14. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Joke

    So the good news is we can cure your diabetes

    and the bad news is - we have to chop your bollocks off.

    Hmm. Gonna have to think about that one.

  15. Vlad

    What would we call them?

    Pancresticles?

    1. bluesxman
      Go

      RE: What would we call them?

      Testicreas

  16. bob's hamster

    Men may be able to grow a new pancreas from their testicles

    What a title!

    That is all.

  17. webdude

    Unless He Is Married

    The wife cut them off long ago.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    So "male enhancement"...

    is now a social good?

    "But honey, I did it for the good of mankind!!"

    What a miraculous age we live in, where you can start with nads' and wind up with glands! :)

  19. elderlybloke
    Pint

    Lot of use of the word

    MIGHT.

    A lot of things might happen some time in the future, but the probability is a lot less.

    At my age I prefer that new testicles be made from, well anything, I don't care what is is.

    Just get on with the job.

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