DIABETES RESEARCH

" If scientists are able to develop a plentiful source of islets from stem cells, the future for type 1 diabetics could be very bright."
About Diabetes Paul Ford-Martin

Approximately 15 to 17 million people in the U.S. have diabetes.

-- Diabetes is the most frequent cause for non-traumatic amputation.
-- Diabetes cause half of the cases of chronic renal failure with the need to dialyse or transplant the kidney
-- Diabetes is found in a large portion of patients with myocardial infarction
-- Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries

In one study, researchers at Harvard Medical School killed cells responsible for the diabetes, then the animals' adult stem cells took over and regenerated missing cells needed to produce insulin and eliminate the disease.

"It should be possible to use the same method to reverse Type 1 diabetes in humans," says Denise Faustman, the associate professor of medicine who leads the research.

Type 1 diabetes is an "autoimmune" disease in which the body's blood cells attack its own organs and tissues. It may be cured by poisoning the offending cells and letting adult stem cells regrow replacement organs.
Once the disease is out of the way, adult stem cells may regenerate normal organs and tissues.

In the diabetes experiments, cells that attack insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas were destroyed. The researchers intended to follow up the killings with transplants of healthy islet cells but, to their surprise, this turned out to be unnecessary because adult stem cells took over the work.

An estimated 16 million people have diabetes in the United States. About 10 percent of these patients suffer from Type 1, which used to be called juvenile diabetes because it commonly appears between ages 10 and 16. Type 1 diabetics cannot make insulin to convert blood sugars into energy, so they must inject themselves daily with the hormone to survive. New cases have tripled in the United States in the past 50 years.

Type 2, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, usually occurs gradually after age 40, and often can be managed by diet and exercise. The two types together are the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and limb amputation, as well as major risk factors for heart disease, strokes, and birth defects.

The limiting factor in the use of stem cells to treat diabetes, thus far, appears to be the ability to expand stem cells while maintaining their geometry and cell-to-cell structure. Regenetech®'s proprietary technology (patent applications pending) appears to solve this problem.

Regenetech® is currently considering the appropriate facility for its clinical studies on diabetes treatment. Dr. Mehboob Hussain at Johns Hopkins, a member of Regenetech's Scientific Advisory Board, is the likely candidate for these studies.