Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabs

Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.

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The researchers say it could herald the start of a revolution in treating type one diabetes, which affects 300,000 patients in Britain.

Type one diabetics have to regularly inject themselves with the hormone insulin to control their blood sugar levels.

The new research has emerged a month after it was revealed that the number of British children under the age of five who had developed type one diabetes had risen fivefold in the past 20 years.

A team of US and Brazilian scientists gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by injections of stem cells drawn from their own blood.

After treatment, 14 of the 15 were able to put away their injection pens after losing their insulin dependence.

And so far, one patient has been free of insulin dependency for 35 months.

Study leader Dr Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paolo said he had rushed out his findings because of the positive results.

He said: "Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease.

"Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin dependence and treatment-related toxicity was low, with no mortality."

Type one diabetes is caused by insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas being destroyed by the patient's own immune system.

Stem cells are immature cells that can develop to become a range of different adult cells.

In the latest trial, patients' immune systems were suppressed using powerful drugs - to eliminate the white blood cells that were attacking the pancreas.

The patient was then injected with a chemical which loosened stem cells from their bone marrow. These were filtered out, collected and later injected back into the patient's bloodstream.

Some of the 14 patients responded more quickly than others, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers believe the stem cells developed into new white blood cells which did not attack the pancreatic beta cells.

But they admit there are other possible interpretations - the stem cells could have developed into new beta cells in the pancreas. Or something might have happened to stop the existing beta cells being destroyed.

The study only included a small number of patients between 14 and 31, and did not monitor their progress for very long.

Because of the nature of the study, it is not known if further stem cell injections would be required at a later date.

And unlike most medical trials there was no comparison with patients left untreated or only given drugs to suppress their immune system.

Malcolm Alison, professor of stem cell biology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said: "In principle this is a cure because these people developed long-term control of their glucose levels.

"But these patients haven't been followed up long enough, so we cannot yet be sure."

Dr Ian Frame, research manager at Diabetes UK, said: "This is interesting new research that demonstrates that there may have been a substantial improvement in beta cell fundtion. However we would wish to avoid false hope based on the very preliminary nature of these results.

"This study had a very small number of participants and importantly did not include a randomised control group for comparison of results.

"Also, as the researchers say, those who took part have not been sufficiently followed up to find out whether or not the improvements have continued.

"All these issues need to be addressed through more research before there are any conclusive findings in this area."

There have been several pointers towards this latest discovery.

Studies have alreday shown that bone marrow transplants given to cancer patients also seemed to reverse certain auto-immune disease such as type one diabetes. Bone marrow is full of stem cells.

Later it was found that treating patients with stem cells from their own blood could benefit individuals with a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Chron's disease.