Jan 28, 2016

Diabetes cure may be step closer, scientists say – The Independent

A cure for type 1 diabetes could be a step closer after scientists managed to halt the condition in mice for 6 months thanks to the usage of insulin-making cells that had been generated from human stem cells.

Experts from US hospitals and institutions including Harvard University managed to transplant cells in to mice, which right away began making insulin.

The group was likewise able to reveal they could steer clear of the cells being rendered useless by the body’s own immune system, which was efficiently “switched off” thanks to scientific work.

It means a cure for type 1 diabetes – which affects 400,000 people in the UK – could be considerably closer. Scientists are now functioning to replicate the outcomes in people along with the condition.

The findings build on the news at the end of 2014 that experts had located exactly how to make huge quantities of insulin-making cells.

The man that led that breakthrough – Harvard Professor Doug Melton, that has actually been attempting to locate a cure for the ailment because his son Sam was diagnosed along with type 1 diabetes as a baby – likewise worked on the brand-new studies.

The human islet cells used for the brand-new research were generated from human stem cells made by  Professor Melton.

Following implantation in mice, the cells right away began making insulin in response to blood glucose levels, and were able to keep blood glucose within a healthy and balanced range for 174 days – the length of the study.

The findings are published in the journals Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology and were gained feasible along with funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). JDRF’s vice-president of discovery research, Julia Greenstein, said: “Encapsulation therapies have actually the potential to be groundbreaking for people along with type 1 diabetes.

“These treatments make every effort to efficiently establish long term insulin independence and remove the everyday burden of managing the ailment for months, possibly years, at a time free of the demand for immune suppression.”

Press Association

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