Stem Cell Treatment Shows Promise For Diabetics

This is potentially excellent news, although the small sample size means that much more study must be done. The 15 patients had to undergo chemotherapy to kill their immune systems and have them replaced by their own stem cells. After three years of study, 13 of the 15 no longer require the daily insulin shots.

In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.

The results show that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from reliance on needles by an injection of their own stem cells. The therapy could signal a revolution in the treatment of the condition, which affects more than 300,000 Britons.

People with type 1 diabetes have to give themselves regular injections to control blood-sugar levels, as their ability to create the hormone naturally is destroyed by an immune disorder.

All but two of the volunteers in the trial, details of which are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), do not need daily insulin injections up to three years after stopping their treatment regimes.

The findings were released to reporters yesterday as the future of US stem-cell research was being debated in Washington.

Stem cells are immature, unprogrammed cells that have the ability to grow into different kinds of tissue and can be sourced from people of all ages.

What's missing from the headline (mine included?) is the kind of stem cells involved in the treatment. They're not embryonic stem cells, or even cord blood, but stem cells harvested from the person being treated themselves. That would be an adult stem cell treatment.

There are issues with this kind of treatment considering the serious medical procedure involved to get to this point. Do the costs and risks associated with the chemotherapy and transplant outweigh the ongoing costs of daily insulin shots? I think they do, especially when one considers the quality of life improvement that these patients can gain from not having to take daily insulin.

However, there was one patient who suffered a relapse after suffering from a viral infection. It is possible that serious illnesses can bring about a recurrence of the diabetes, which must be further studied.