Stem Cell Relief for Diabetics
The Sun
12th April 2007
Chicago: An experimental stem cell therapy designed to reverse the course of Type 1 diabetes allowed patients to go treatment-free for months and in one case, three years, a study released on Tuesday said.
13 of the 15 patients who took part in testing the therapy to quit insulin injections that most diabetes depend on and remain insulin-free today, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
One of the first patients to undergo the procedure has gone three years without using any supplemental synthetic insulin to regulate their blood sugar levels.
“This is the first therapy for type 1 diabetes to result in drug-free treatment,” said Richard Burt, chief of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
While investigators continues to monitor patients’ progress, the preliminary results raise the tantalizing possibility that type 1 diabetes may not be a life sentence, according to a US diabetes researcher.
“This study by Voltarelli et al is the first of what likely will be many attempts at cellular therapy to interdict the type 1 diabetes mellitus disease process,” said Jay Skyler of the University of Miami.
Type 1 diabetes accounts for only 5 to 10 % of all cases of the disease, but can result in blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and stroke. The condition arises when the body’s own immune system attacks and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, causing a shortage in the hormone required to regulate blood sugar.- AFP
