Study: Stem Cells May Reverse Type 1 Diabetes – TIME
A stem cell treatment allows the regrowth of insulin-producing Beta cells in type 1 diabetes patients
Study: Stem Cells May Reverse Type 1 Diabetes
By Alice Park Monday, Apr. 13, 2009, Biophoto Asso
ciates / Photo Researchers
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.
The findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, exemplify the remarkable gains made by diabetes researchers, who are battling a continuously spreading disease that now affects nearly 8% of adults and children. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)
The 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 led to an appreciable repopulation of functioning insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
