Stem Cell Research Provides Positive Results in Type 1 Diabetes Treatment

A small study among people with type 1 diabetes was recently conducted, headed up by Dr. Julio C. Voltarelli, from the Regional Blood Center in Ribeiro Preto, Brazil, regarding treatment of stem cell transplantation in patients with the disease.

The results? Prolonged insulin independence with those newly diagnosed with type 1, insulin dependent.

What is type 1 diabetes? Type 1 diabetes is most often diagnosed in children and young adults. The condition is that the body cannot produce insulin; this is the crucial hormone that is needed in order to convert sugars and starches into energy for the body's use. This is an autoimmune disorder; the patient's immune system attacks, and then destroys, the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Complications of the condition include increased risk for heart attack and stroke, kidney failure, eye problems that might lead to blindness, foot problems, decreased circulation, skin problems and depression. Management of type 1 diabetes includes an attempt to preserve the beta cells that produce the insulin to stave off these complications.

Voltarelli says that although this method has been tested in other autoimmune disorders, this was the first time in the case of type 1 diabetes. Transplantation of stem cells involves the use of the patient's own stem cells; they are taken from the patient, treated, and the returned (by injection) to the patient intravenously.

Stem cells are those that have the potential to turn into a variety of different cell types in the body. No matter their sources, stem cells all have three properties; they are capable of dividing, they are not specialized, and they give rise to specialized cell types. It has been found that embryonic stem cells proliferate for a year, or more, in a laboratory and adult stem cells do not.