Defeat Diabetes Now

Body’s Own Stem Cells To Fight Diabetes Type 1 Doctors believe they are getting closer to a cure that could dramatically change the lives of people with Type I Diabetes. In patients with Type I Diabetes the body thinks the pancreas is a foreign invader, so it starts to destroy the organ’s islet cells. Those are the cells that produce insulin. Now researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center are trying to create islets from adult stem cells so that they can be transplanted back into the patient, eliminating the need for constant blood sugar monitoring and insulin injections. “The crux of this research is to change the whole paradigm,” says Georgetown’s Dr. Stephen Clement. “So instead of giving shots in response to what the person needs, to basically develop cells that can make insulin again that are autologous, which means we actually start with cells from a person’s own body.” Scientists have transplanted islets from one person to another in the past, but patients were required to be on strong anti-rejection medications and that can take more of a toll on the body than the diabetes itself. Clement says creating islets from a person’s own stem cells would prevent the need for that kind of medication. “The next step is to have to grow a lot of islets, a half billion to cure diabetes in a human,” he says. Doctors are now figuring out the best way to grow the new cells. They would then try to implant them in animals and if that goes well, they’ll be used on humans …