Stem Cells Could Produce Insulin
Stem Cells Could Produce Insulin – A team of scientists at Harvard seems to have taken a crucial step toward eventually curing diabetes by creating insulin-producing beta cells.
By using stem cells, a group of Harvard scientists have brought the medical world closer than ever to effectively treating diabetes. The scientists claim they have successfully created large amounts of the vital insulin-producing beta cells that type 1 patients lack.
Currently, those with type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in childhood, must inject themselves with insulin multiple times a day in order to make up for the lack of beta cells. It’s a treatment that one stem cell researcher at Harvard Medical School told NPR, “is a kind of life-support for diabetics. It doesn’t cure the disease and leads to devastating complications of the disease.”
But this latest research would change that by providing diabetic patients with beta cells that would help them maintain their blood glucose levels and possibly paving the way for a cure for diabetes.
The team published their findings in the scientific journal, Cell, on Thursday. The Harvard Gazette says Douglas Melton who led the research, started searching for a cure 23 years ago after his infant son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. His daughter was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
Even with this latest development, Melton cautions that the work still has a long way to go before it can be tested on patients. But that didn’t stop others in the medical field from hailing Milton and his team’s work. One professor told The Telegraph, the research was “one of the most important advances to date in the stem cell field”. Another told Harvard Magazine, it would” leave a dent in the history of diabetes”.
Although the team still needs to solve the issue of immune cells attacking foreign beta cells injected into a patient, Bloomberg says, Milton is considering using a small dispensing device instead, which could bypass the problem.
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