Stem cells offer diabetes breakthrough

Stem cells offer diabetes breakthrough
By Christopher Bowe in New York
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: April 10 2007 21:38 | Last updated: April 10 2007 21:38


Diabetics could be freed for long periods from the need for insulin injections by using stem cells transplanted from bone marrow, according to a groundbreaking study published on Wednesday.

The small preliminary study found 14 out of 15 patients with type I diabetes were able to go without insulin for a long period with few serious side effects.

The researchers treated newly diagnosed diabetic patients with drugs to aggressively suppress their immune systems. This prompted their bone marrow to release stem cells into the blood.

Those cells were drawn and collected from the patients to make a therapy for them.

The patients were then again treated with a different aggressive immune-suppression therapy and injected with their own stem cells, to help rejuvenate their bodies’ capability to make the cells that produce insulin.

The study by Dr Julio Voltarelli, of Brazil’s University of Sao Paulo, and Dr Richard Burt, at Northwestern University in the US, is to be published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The research is seen as a landmark in a potential explosion of new science that finds ways to alter the body’s cellular make-up to treat diabetes.

In addition, the study uses bone marrow stem cells, rather than embryonic stem cells, which remain controversial in the US because of ethical and religious concerns.

Nonetheless, the study’s positive result may add momentum to stem cell research, whose prospects have also improved since Democrats took control of the US Congress.

Diabetes is increasingly seen as a growing worldwide problem, particularly in the developed world. The world is expected to spend at least $232bn in 2007 to treat and prevent diabetes and its complications, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Type II diabetes accounts for 90-95 per cent of the disease, and is growing quickly because of rising obesity rates and sedentary lifestyles. But type I diabetes is the better known form, in which the body’s immune system attacks itself to destroy the cells that create insulin and help it process glucose.

The lifestyles of type I diabetics are significantly affected by the need for insulin injections and blood sugar monitoring. Type I diabetics have a high probability of contracting life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease.

The study found that one patient went nearly three years without insulin, four went without for at least 21 months, seven for at least six months, and two for between one and five months.

Although noting caution in reading too much into early research, Dr Jay Skyler, a diabetes expert from the University of Miami, said research in the field was likely to “explode” in the next few years.

“It’s an area that begs more research,” Dr Skyler said in an interview. “But nobody was brave enough to do it. It is a heroic approach. They were willing to put their toe in the water first.”