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Researchers have used injections of patients' own stem cells to reverse the course of type 1 diabetes, reports a research team from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Northwestern University in Chicago...
...research team, led by Dr. Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paulo, is the first to successfully treat type 1 diabetes patients with their own stem cells. The group first reported its initial achievement in 2007, with 15 type 1 diabetes patients who received their own stem cells and no longer needed insulin to control their blood sugar levels. In the new study, a follow-up of their previous work, Voltarelli and his colleagues detailed the same success with an additional eight patients, and also confirmed that in the majority of them, the stem cell transplant...
...idea behind the transplant is simple. In type I diabetes, the patient's own immune system turns on the beta cells that produce insulin, the hormone that breaks down the glucose we eat in food. Eventually, the immune cells will virtually eliminate all of the body's beta cells, and glucose levels will start to climb. Researchers believe that the trigger for this attack lies somewhere within the immune cells, so one possible treatment for the disease may be to wipe out the entire existing immune system and replace it with a fresh one, derived from stem cells without this...
That's a milestone in diabetes treatment. Type I diabetes patients are locked in a constant struggle to maintain their body's insulin levels. Since their beta cells no longer produce the hormone on their own, patients must supply it themselves with multiple injections throughout the day and night, or using an insulin pump that dispenses insulin automatically through a permanent tube under the skin. Voltarelli's stem cell strategy provides a life-changing alternative that would take the burden off the patient and put it back where it belongs, on the beta cells...
...practice, stem cell transplants are not always a home run. For one, transplantation is a grueling and toxic process in which a portion of the body's tissues - the immune system - is destroyed with dangerous radiation. Then, there is the question of timing. In most cases, patients with type 1 diabetes do not show symptoms of their disease - such as high blood sugar levels - until they have depleted their beta cell population considerably. Dr. David Nathan, director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital, notes that at this point, there may not be enough beta cells remaining to seed...