Sip for charity, sip for the cure

Lindsay Sandham

Every year for the past four years the North American Foundation for

the Cure of Diabetes holds a wine-tasting fundraiser in Newport Beach

-- “Taste for the Cure.”

The foundation, which estimated that it raised $190,000 from a

Sunday event at Pelican Hill Country Club, initiated a partnership

between UC Irvine and the Canadian University of Alberta in Edmonton,

the founder of an insulin-producing, cell transplant procedure.

According to David Imagawa, Associate professor of General Surgery

at UCI, if everything goes smoothly with the Food and Drug

Administration, a transplantation program should be up and running at

UCI by September. Imagawa will oversee the program.

“The biggest hurdle is there is a lot FDA paperwork because we’re

bringing the islet cells from Canada,” he said.

The procedure, which isolates islet cells in the pancreas of a

donor, will actually be performed in Edmonton. The islet cells will

then be delivered to the doctors at UCI, who will inject them into

the liver of a person with diabetes. If it works, the recipient

should start producing insulin on his or her own.

The problem, Imagawa said, is that it can take cells from up to

four deceased donors to cure one person.

The first recipient of the transplant surgery at UC Irvine will be

Dottie Denes of Villa Park.

“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “I really can’t imagine

waking up every day and not having to take insulin. It means that

perhaps I’ll no longer have to take insulin, and it can perhaps

reverse some of the negative effects that diabetes has caused.”

Imagawa said this program wouldn’t be possible without the support

of the foundation. Last year the wine-tasting fundraiser brought in

more than $170,000 for research and development of a cure.

Jerry Stefani, the chairman of the foundation’s board, said his

son, Brian Stefani, is also on the five-person list to receive the

cell transplant procedure.

Brian Stefani said he hopes to receive cells from a live donor,

most likely a family member.

This form of the surgery is still being tested, but has seen some

more immediate results, he said.

Imagawa said there are other centers in the United Sates that are

actively trying to do this procedure, with centers in Florida and

Minnesota being the most effective so far.

“We do a lot of research in that area,” he aid. “It will probably

tie in very closely to the stem cell program at UCI.”