Amazing Stem Cell Treatment for Diabetes

Amazing Stem Cell Treatment for DiabetesIf recent research continues along its promising path, stem cells from women’s uteruses might turn out to be the "mother" of all treatments for type 1 diabetes -- eliminating the need for patients (men as well as women) to inject themselves with insulin! A group of scientists from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, has converted endometrial stem cells harvested from the base of adult female uteruses into cells that produce insulin. It’s possible that this will turn out to be a major breakthrough for the roughly three million Americans who have type 1 diabetes (meaning that their bodies don’t produce insulin). I contacted Hugh S. Taylor, MD, lead researcher of the study (published in the August 30, 2011 issue of Molecular Therapy) and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale to learn more about this intriguing new application for stem cells. While there are new technologies that are fairly easy to use to treat type 1 diabetes (like insulin pens and pumps), people who don’t naturally produce insulin still have to spend lots of time monitoring their blood sugar and need several injections of varying amounts a day. But even with these advances, insulin injection remains inexact and inefficient, said Dr. Taylor. "Glucose levels change so rapidly that no amount of monitoring allows diabetics to inject insulin at the precise times they need it," he explained. ABOUT THE RESEARCHDr. Taylor and his fellow researchers extracted the uterine stem cells from adult women and treated them with special nutrients and growth factors (indolactam and exendin) that earlier studies had shown would transform the cells into insulin producers. These new-and-improved cells were then injected into eight mice with type 1 diabetes, while six other mice with type 1 diabetes were injected with placebo cells. After five weeks, none of the mice that got the new insulin-producing cells developed diabetic problems -- their blood sugar didn’t rise any higher, and they started producing insulin. In contrast, blood sugar levels in all of the mice who received placebo cells continued to rise (above 220 mg/dL) and they also began to develop some of the common complications of diabetes that are so destructive, specifically cataracts and fatigue. While the mice with the insulin-producing cells were still considered diabetic, they were clearly in far better shape than their placebo-treated counterparts, and Dr. Taylor told me that he believes that injecting more such insulin-producing cells into them might even lower their blood sugar and make their diabetes actually go away. COMING SOON TO A DOCTOR NEAR YOU? Dr. Taylor seems quite optimistic that human beings will react well to this new therapy, too. He believes that we could see treatments based on this technique within three to four years but noted that this depends, of course, on the outcome of research that is currently underway. Thus far, no dangerous or harmful side effects have been identified. Though it is possible that people will need repeat stem cell injections (perhaps every few months or every few years), the stem cells are inexpensive to produce and the injections can be given directly into the skin in a process so simple that it can be done in a doctor’s office. This is a promising development to be watched. Source(s): Hugh S. Taylor, MD, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, director, Yale Center for Reproductive Biology and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.