So your code is:
handles.edit1 = 0;
This way you don't create an object, you simply add a field to the structure "handles", with value 0. I think you misunderstand the concept of handles. A handle is merely a number to refer to an object. The handle itself does not contain any properties. In addition, you can't add properties to an object: all properties are defined by the type of object.
Maybe you want to look at some of these examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_hmws6dwgg http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/7598
