Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication.  Sept 4, 2009




    RIBEIRAO PRETO, Brazil-Doctors have once again demonstrated the promise of stem cell therapy. This time, the treatment may have helped patients who have diabetes by freeing them from daily hormone injections.
   The patients all had type I diabetes, an inherited condition in which the immune system destroys beta cells in the pancreas. Those cells make and release the hormone insulin, which regulates the amount of blood sugar in the body. Too much blood sugar can lead to nerve damage, heart disease, poor vision, and kidney failure. (The other form of diabetes--type 2--is an acquired condition that is most common among people who are overweight and inactive.) The people who participated in the stem cell experiment were mostly young men and teenage boys who live in Brazil. Within six weeks of receiving the type 1 diagnosis, each person was operated on by Julio Voltarelli, a Brazilian doctor.
   He and his team removed stem cells from the blood of each patient. Stem cells are immature cells that develop into specialized cells. Next, the doctors used drugs to destroy the patient's immune system. Then, they injected the stem cells back into the patient's body. The stem cells created a new immune system-one that, the doctors hoped, would not attack the patient's insulinmaking beta cells.
   The first patient in the study underwent the treatment in 2003. Since then, 22 more have received it. Of the total, 12 do not require insulin injections today. Eight others need less insulin than they did before. Though the therapy shows promise, the doctors admit that it needs more study. People who develop type 1 sometimes undergo remission in the first months and years after the disease is diagnosed. During remission, their symptoms disappear. The doctors will have to determine whether the therapy is truly effective--that the patients who are symptomfree have not simply experienced a normal remission in their condition.
   Cell Transfer Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person's immune system destroys the region of the pancreas that produces the hormone insulin. Brazilian doctors have treated diabetes by injecting type 1 patients with their own stem cells. The stem cells developed into new immune systems that did not attack the patients' pancreases.
   How the Procedure Worked Stem cells were extracted from each patient's blood. Each patient then underwent chemotherapy, which destroyed his or her immune system. The stem cells were reintroduced into each patient, producing new immune systems.

Addendum

This disease has caused so much heartache in parents and children who are currently suffering, let us hope that this type of progress continues to improve....100% cure rate is not asking to much!